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Email ThisRes ipsa loquitur. That’s Latin for the thing speaks for itself and is also a way of saying that actions speak louder than words. Cliches like that exist because they tend to be true. If you look at government programs targeted for children and youth in American society, there’s no exception. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) purports to give each child access to a quality education. In reality, it forces school closures, subjects students to needless high-stakes testing, and actually lowers the quality of education.
This video is a preview of a new HBO documentary into NCLB’s impact in one inner-city school.
Comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only education might have prevented 17 students in Massachusetts from becoming mothers before their 18th birthday. Childhood obesity continues to compromise the health of children, putting them at risk for heart disease, Type II diabetes and other disorders. However, many schools continue to serve unhealthy foods during lunch and keep the vending machines stocked with sugar-laden snacks and beverages. School systems have continued to cut back or virtually eliminate physical education from schools.
Ensuring children’s welfare is one of the most paramount interests of government. While they are children, parents provide them food, shelter, clothing and many other things that contribute to our consumer-based economy. From an economic standpoint, they are the future workforce. From a moral standpoint, children should be protected because they can not protect themselves.
Political ideology should not affect policy decisions related to children’s welfare. Many of the conservative Republicans currently in office are to blame for the consistent budgetary cuts that have taken place. They have managed to politicize an issue which objectively should not have any opposition. Why should children be punished with hunger if their parents lose their job while the economy is in a recession? How do you turn down health care coverage for children whose parents work but make too much more for Medicare but too little for private health insurance coverage?
If the government actually values children and youth, why isn’t it doing more to protect them? Why doesn’t the government invest in their continued well-being? Why is there political opposition to the creation of a safety net? 
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NCLB, you are right on that one, the point is that it was Conservative backed and congress (both sides mind you) voted for it because the idea behind it was a good idea but when it played out it had kinks that need to be fixed drastically. There were good intentions though, you can’t say that the republicans woke up one day and were like “let’s screw over some kids today!!”
When it comes to the health of children in schools you can also blame both sides for cutting back on phys ed classes, no where in that explanation of children’s health did you elude to republican involvement.
This was in the news earlier this year too for the children’s health care issue, the liberal news was all over the fact that republicans were blocking the bill to be passed but omitting the fact that the reason behind those blocks was the the democrats and liberals attached so much pork to the bill that it was insane. You want to talk about a party not caring for children, the reason it was blocked for so long is because the liberals and democrats cared more about their personal financial expenditures than the children and kept refusing to cut the pork out of the bill. Pork in and of itself is a crime in congress and while both sides are guilty it is the left side that gets away with it the most.
The reason why so much pork was attached to this specific bill, coincidentally, is exactly why you write about this topic, to play off of the emotions of the public and point the finger at the other side instead of coming up with solutions. “Look over there they don’t care about the children! evil conservatives, you should elect more liberals into congress so we can save the children!”…give me a break
hey, thanks for this post.
I’m of the opinion that it’s not republicans OR democrats that are screwing over American’s youngest, its the largesse, immobile, un-innovative monstrosity of BIG government we have.
If we ran schools like we run restaurants (where people get quality product and service because the restaurant owner is financially accountable) we’d all be better off.
Maybe instead of debating which party cares more about the children we should realize that the real issue is that government in general is terrible at raising children.
Uncle Sam will never grow wise enough or spend enough money to raise a child in a healthy way, that role will always be reserved for parents.
Instead of counting on the government to do more, I think it would be much more productive to challenge parents to take a more active role in the education of their children. It’s simply not the government’s job.
Complex issue. I’ve come to the conclusion that the schools should have no part in sex education at all. That’s the parent’s job. If your kid gets pregnant at 14, it’s because you obviously failed at some level as a parent, you can’t put it on the school system.
Anna- that’s a slippery slope towards running schools like a business, which is part of the problem of NCLB. Schools that perform well get more funding. Schools that fall short (and therefore need more resources) get the shaft, or get closed down. Education can’t have a market model, because that will always mean the cheapest education available.
I agree that both parties have it wrong. The Dems throw money at the system while not realizing it needs to be overhauled entirely. Throwing money at the problem does nothing, but then again taking away all their funding like Reps only makes things worse.
In my humble opinion, if you are a parent, it is YOUR duty to ensure that your children get the education that is due to them. You as the parent need to stand up and fight for your kids in all levels. As a parent, if you don’t like what you see, then do something about it. Don’t depend or assume that something will be done for your children.
I don’t believe the poor performance of a school can be contributed to one political party. In fact the majority of school funding comes from local and state taxes. The school featured in the HBO documentary was in Baltimore, MD a proverbially democratic city and state. My primary issue is with the federal government mandating standardize test to state funded schools. Yet schools do need to be held accountable for the performance of its students and how the students compare to their contemporaries across the county.
The real issue is the poverty and the lack of a family structure. Developing additional social programs and throwing money at this issue will not solve the problem. The solution will come from someone within that community speaking up and questioning why it has become acceptable for young teenage girls to have babies. This is the 10,000 lb. elephant in the room. With children growing up with very little to no structure in their lives, how can we expect for these children to enter the structured environment of school and have any success. Until this issue is addressed don’t expect any great program to improve the lives of these children.
Vanessa,
I appreciate you’re absurd title for it’s ability to get people to read your absurd post, and for it’s ability to get you on the front page of BC where you definitely do not belong.
But instead of throwing blame at Republicans, why don’t you take a look across the aisle? Since the Democrats took congress, by running on the platform of “Change and Hope,” nothing has happened (0,zip,nada). It’s been the same old same old, and I have no doubts that it will continue to be the same with Obama or McCain in the Oval Office.
Kid’s getting pregnant?… I agree with those above, it’s the parent’s fault.
Kid’s are fat? I do agree that Health education has a long way to go.
Budgetary Crisis? Find a link to the source, instead of a link to a blog that says there is a source. And definitely don’t blam it on the Republicans when the Democrats control Congress.
BC’s quality of posts has gone down…
As a conservative I must say, to be fair, that the REAL title of her blog is “the US government doesn’t care about children”, BC takes the liberty of changing the headlines to catch more eyes, it works. But on the issue I once again say that it just doesn’t make sense.
@Chris The title is different which I think is driving part of the strong opposition. I do believe that the state of children in the country is not one party’s fault. It is a failure of government as a whole.
Chris, I know you would like to believe that the reason for the opposition to the children’s health care bill was because of the extensive spending measures attached to the bill. However, those same Republicans that opposed the bill on those grounds are the same ones that have passed record amounts of pork barrel spending for 6 years of this administration without anyone complaining about government spending. I never suggested that we should elect more liberals to Congress. I think that we need to elect people who aren´t so short-sighted that they cut children’s health care to save a buck.
@Anna Right now we do run schools like businesses and it is a mess much like our health care system. There are some things that the free market can not fix. I think that the free market fails when the product that you are talking about producing is people. Running schools like a business assumes that the “owners” or school administrations have control over things like school funding.
@Cameron We do need to challenge parents to do more. That’s one of the things that I like about Obama is that he has been pointing out the necessity of some personal responsibility. However, advocating personal responsibility assumes that people have the resources and knowledge to follow through. That gap between personal responsibility and capacity is where the government needs to fill in.
@Tim It would be easier if schools didn´t have any part in sex ed. The problem is that parents don’t fill that role and the children are hurt by that. Teen pregnancy continues through generations; it’s the reason you have 35 year old grandmothers. Someone has to intervene to stop the cycle; otherwise, it could be considered an indirect form of child abuse.
@Daniel Thanks for your comment. The post expresses my opinion and you have every right to disagree with it. If you had read closer you would have seen that I never said that Republicans were solely to blame. This is a political problem, not a party problem.
Pointing the finger at Democrats does nothing to solve the problem that kids are in a worse state now than they were five years ago.
Vanessa,
I did read your post. I also read your title, however I know that BC changes titles sometimes, this one seems a bit over the top for them if they did change it. Finger-pointing started with your title.
I’m a conservative, not a republican. And I believe we have a broken 2 party system. I wasn’t trying to throw the blame on either party, though I admit it came across that way. I was mearly providing a counter argument for the tone of your post, which was set by the title.
What? The kidz (including Trunk) running this site are a bunch of amateurs who learned how to title articles by reading the Huffington Post?
I am shocked to the core.
I am glad that you are shocked. It means at least read something. However, you should try reading the article to move beyond the shock value of the title and maybe you will learn something as well.