Laura Flanders, author of the book BushWoman and editor of the book The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, came to Allegheny College on November 1, 2005. She is a very outspoken feminist, having hosted her own radio show for fifteen years. She focuses her activism towards politics. While at Allegheny, she spoke about everything from feminism itself to the terrible job that President George W. Bush has done as the leader of the United States of America.

In addition, Laura Flanders spoke about No Child Left Behind, the negative effects it has on our country, and how some of the most talented children in the U.S. are being 'left behind' because of it.

Flanders had a very negative view of Margaret Spellings, the U.S. Secretary of Education. She brought with her an article from the New York Times that depicted Spellings as a "soccer mom." Flanders thought that it was unfortunate that the most powerful person in the field of education was seen as a soccer mom rather than a powerful educator. Flanders noted that before being appointed to the Secretary of Education, Spellings was a top lobbyist of NCLB and an advocate for President George W. Bush. Flanders thought that although it is great to have a woman as the secretary of such a prestigious position, it is not worthwhile if that woman is seen as a soccer mom rather than a leader and a role model.

Flanders also noted that a piece of NCLB is a money-making distribution. Through her research, she found that Pearson Education, a test-making company, is the leading company that makes standardized tests for each state in the U.S. Pearson Education is a for-profit organization, that is making money off of our school districts. Pearson Education makes the tests, gets paid for making them, and then gets paid even more for printing the results. And where does this money come from? -- Straight from your taxes. Your local school district pays the bills from Pearson Education, and that money is coming from your local property taxes.

As if that weren't enough, the employees for Pearson Education are even getting the shorter end of the stick (if that is at all possible). A lot of people with their PhDs who cannot find jobs at colleges or within the field of education itself go to Pearson Educaion to find jobs. Since these people have PhDs, it would be assumed that they are making good money, since, after all, if they were professors, they would be getting paid close to a six-figure salary. This is hardly the case. Pearson Education pays $11/hour, and their employees work an average of 10 hours/day, with only two 25-minute breaks. These employees receive no benefits and often find themselves working out of a warehouse.

To tie it all together, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has a connection with Pearson Education. Thus, Pearson Education has an investment in NCLB. Flanders felt that there could be something intentional about NCLB. Bad test scores lead to more tests which ultimately leads to more profit for Pearson Education.
For more information about Pearson Education, please click here.

 

In addition to all of this, Laura Flanders commented on NCLB itself, and how it harms the students. She stated that NCLB does not fix schools, it allows students to switch schools and take their money with them to the new school. She believed that education funding should come out of the national government, since the national government chooses to be so involved in the matter. If education funding does not come out of the national government, then why even bother having a nationally-run Department of Education?

Flanders was offended that NCLB prohibits students to learning only math, reading, and eventually science as well. She stated that the kids who are being left behind are the talented ones, because teachers have to teach math, science, and reading, but not the arts. She asked if younger generations will even know about Rose Parks, since they're not being tested on it and the schools aren't expected to teach history. She said that teachers call her radio show and talk about how they have to secretly teach art, civics, etc. because they aren't supposed to teach it with NCLB.

She ended her lecture by asking, "What will it mean to have a generation of kids who can't be artists - but obviously know math and science? We may not know now, but it seems we will soon find out."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information from this page was obtained from Laura Flanders' lecture in Political Science 191 at Allegheny College on November 1, 2005.