Federal Judge rules "No fundamental right to literacy"

[henryp]

If you have a school filled with kids with behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and no parental support, you're going to have a high rate of failure.

Calling success in school a right is a bit unrealistic.

Actually, the No Child Left Behind act ensures you are wrong. While I don't agree with some parts of the act, I do agree with the premise of it; that as far as educational standards go, no child be left behind. 

And as I said in my other post, all public schools receive Title IV funding. Because they do, if they want to continue receiving those federal funds, the children must be at or above certain educational standards set forth by State Educational Agencies. IDEA ensures that children with disabilities - including behavioral problems - get all the help they need from our educational system. 

FYI - I am an educational advocate for my area. I help parents who have special needs children, when the public schools want to deny their children their educational rights.

The goal is great.  But practically, you go to a really poor school, where the kids are getting beaten, or the parent just views the school as a daycare, or nobody has taught the kid anything heading into kindergarten, including how to sit still for 5 minutes or listen (or all of these things).  In those situations, where the teacher isn't just teaching them a read, they are trying to raise them like a parent while at the same time teaching 19 other kids to read.  It's just not in the cards no matter how many laws you pass.

I don't know where you live, but if you're working with parents, that means the parents are interested, which already puts them head and shoulders above some lousier schools.  And if the school is dealing with a few special needs kids, or a couple disruptive kids, it's no small task, but they can and should accommodate them.

But again, some of these schools, 8 kids out of 20 are in no position to succeed.  And they're dragging down the other 12 kids on top of it.  100% literacy is the goal, but there's only so much a teacher can do.