08.21.09
What about the children? Education will suffer without health care reform.
Out of all of the shouting, gun toting and reminiscing for the 1940’s, we have largely ignored one casualty in the heath care debate, education. Arne Duncan, President Obama, Rev. Sharpton, and Speaker Newt Gingrich have come together to tackle education reform. Secretary Duncan has the brand new “Race To The Top” Program which I like to call NCLB v.2.0 beta. Standards and assessments, everything a growing child needs to succeed in the market place. No attention to curriculum and instruction, but oh, I forgot. Those items are understood to automatically be there and work in favor of all children.
The issue I am raising is how poverty which is not truly figured into the administration’s formula for success. According the rhetoric, it’s the teacher’s fault that the little poor kids can’t pass the test. These sorry teachers are holding the educational system back. Fire ‘em! Fire ‘em all I say!
Now I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I think you have to actually be in school to be taught anything which brings be to my point. What are we going to do about the number of uninsured families and children?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
Findings about Children
- The number of uninsured children under age 18 rose by 600,000, from 8.05 million in 2005 to 8.66 million in 2006. The percentage of children who lack health insurance also rose from 10.9 percent to 11.7 percent.
- As Table 2 indicates, the number and percentage of children who are uninsured declined from 1999 through 2004, but that trend stopped and began to reverse in 2005.[3]
- Rising enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid was the main factor that drove down the number and percentage of uninsured children from 1998 to 2004. These enrollment increases more than offset the declines in employer-based coverage of children that began in 2000.
- From 2004 to 2006, the percentage of children covered by public insurance remained unchanged and thus could not offset the continued reduction in the percentage of children covered by employer-sponsored insurance. The result was an overall reduction in children’s coverage.
This Washington Post article explains it best here.
Children without health coverage are three times as likely as insured children to lack a regular doctor, according to a report released last month by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Research from the American College of Physicians in 2000 found that uninsured children were less likely to be up to date on immunizations and to receive treatment for sore throats, earaches and other common childhood illnesses. A University of Texas study found that kids with insurance tend to have fewer school absences.
Kids with insurance stay in school. It doesn’t matter if you are a “highly qualified” teachers who never needs on-going professional development, ever again. Who comes into the classroom with a near divine-like discernment for the diverse needs of the student and thus can reach all of the children every time they teach with Jedi-like abilities. Who do not need a curriculum that addresses the diverse needs of the learner or effectively use technology within the curriculum. It doesn’t matter that they can have every child hitting those numbers, and walk away with enough merit pay to make athletes jealous.
The kids have to be in school to learn. What does the assessment data say about that? Get on with it already!!