The Nevada Senate, with all the pomp and certainty of a person selling snake oil, unveiled Senate Bill 460, dressed up in the high-sounding title of the “Education through Accountability, Transparency and Efficiency Act”—or, more quaintly, the “EDUCATE Act.”
Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, who believes herself to be the Moses of modern schooling, led the charge. She declared the bill a remedy brewed over a year’s worth of chin-wagging with experts and advocates—though one suspects more talking than listening took place.
Now, the EDUCATE Act is said to be “divided” into five great categories, each as vague and thunderous as a politician’s promise. There’s talk of staffing every classroom with “qualified” teachers and filling every school like a Christmas stocking.
There’s a noble push to improve student outcomes–as if that weren’t the stated goal of every flailing reform from here to Kalamazoo. A Pre-K expansion makes an appearance, too—because nothing says progress like enrolling toddlers into the machinery earlier.
Then comes the bit about “accountability,” which in the language of bureaucrats means more spreadsheets, more meetings, and not one whit more learning. Lastly, the bill ponders the “future of public education,” though if its present state is any clue, the future looks about as bright as a blown-out lantern.
Strangely—one might say tellingly—not once in all this mighty stack of words does the bill see fit to mention the act of teaching. Not the teacher’s burden, not the classroom’s labor, not the miracle that happens when one soul tries to enlighten another. Nope, the bill, like a raft with no oars, floats entirely on governance, staffing, and statistical mumbo-jumbo.
In short, the EDUCATE Act appears to be a legislative stew boiled down from buzzwords, stirred with intention, and served with the promise of everything—except education.
The Old Blog in the Desert 