San Diego teachers say they're sick and tired of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. They're pressuring local lawmakers to gut the legislation during reauthorization this year. KPBS reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
The federal act requires a school to satisfy a number of academic goals every year. If it fails to meet just one of those benchmarks, the school is considered a failure and sanctioned. Local teachers have long criticized the measure. Recently, the San Diego teachers union joined a statewide campaign urging local legislators to erase and rewrite No Child Left Behind.
Union leader Elizabeth Ahlgren says it hurts teachers.
Ahlgren : The problem is you go to work and you give your best every day, and it’s never good enough because your school is labeled as underperforming. And year after year you get in this big hole. And it’s totally demoralizing and you feel like a big failure.
Local teachers want a flexible federal accountability system that measures students’ academic progress over time. And San Diego's Superintendent Carl Cohn has joined the cause.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
