Chapter 2: From the missle gap to the learning gap

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste" - Paul Romer as quoted in the book.

In the second chapter, our author explains some history about various crises that exemplify the "false crisis."  The missle gap example describes how the Kennedy campaign charged that a significant and frightening gap existed between the missle aresenal of the United States and that of the Soviet Union.  The charge was that the Eisenhower administration had not been vigilant and the nation was at risk because of a missle gap.  But when the new administration took over, they discovered that the missle gap was actually heavily in favor of the US, not the other way around.

The author uses this hitorical example as comparable to the learning gap crises that have been proclaimed to exist in one form or another since 1958 with the National Defence Education Act (NDEA).  This crisis has included "A Nation At Risk" and "No Child Left Behind" as Dr. Yong Zhao asserts that the efforts have led to federal government involvement in traditionally local-controlled education.  He even uses the inflamatory term of "dictator" to describe the involvement.

Here are some questions that come to mind for me:

• Is there a crisis in Amercian education?
• If so or if not, has there been a crisis during the past 50 years?
• Have the government interventions been helpful, harmful or just distracting?

One major act of Congress was left out of this chapter that has represented the single largest intrusion and seismic shift in public education since 1970... the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  Congress has never fully funded the requirements of this act which has forced large shifts of local and state dollars that were formerly allocated to general education.  Does Congress believe that education funding was excessive before IDEA and so it made sense to force money away from the general education program to provide services for students with special needs?  Don't get me wrong, the services of Special Education are a moral imperative which is why we do divert funds to back-fill the funding gap the Federal government has left in this mandate... but after more than 35 years, why doesn't Congress live up to the bargain and pay for the Special Education services they mandate?  Congress paying their own bills would rescue local budgets and enable us to deal with the tough economy or even modernize our schools for the 21st Century.

Any bets on whether Congress will ever live up to their promise of 1975?