Public Education in the Crosshairs.

Anyone who cares about public schools should see "Public Education in the Crosshairs," the just-released first installment of a series of programs (video/DVD) called the No Child Left Behind Report.

This independently produced documentary instructs viewers on key points in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the larger agenda behind it. It offers up-to-date viewpoints about the impact of this law on public schools--which has requirements extending to 2014. Although supporters of NCLB are on camera--including President Bush, legislators, and policy leaders from think tanks whose voices are often heard in the press--the strength of the program rests on commentary from a cross-section of stakeholders too rarely featured in the media, including students and parents. Joining these voices are experts in testing, in school law and financing, and the people responsible for implementing NCLB--school boards, superintendents, principals, and teachers.

"Public Education in the Crosshairs" is an expose of a number of consequences flowing from NCLB, especially in Ohio where legislators and lawyers designed and tested a program allowing vouchers to religious schools in Cleveland--a program the U.S. Supreme Court sustained as legal in 2002. Ohio legislators were also involved in writing NCLB in a manner that gives unprecedented support for market-driven charter schools.

As a direct consequence of these initiatives, 28.75% of Ohio's funds for K-12 education are now going to market-driven and religious schools--the highest proportion of outflow from public schools in any state. At the same time, implementing NCLB has cost the state about $1.5 billion, but only $44 million has been received to implement the law.

Inadequate funding of NCLB is an important theme in the documentary, but interviews and video segments also reveal how federal efforts to micromanage schools have other consequences. The "test-em-til-they-drop" mentality built into t law has caused many schools to focus almost exclusively on preparing students for statewide fill-in-the-bubble tests easily scored by machines.

NCLB does include the arts as a "core academic subject, but arts programs are being dropped across the nation. Even in schools where the arts have not been cut, teachers in the arts are increasingly called upon to engage in school-wide test prep activities and boost scores on tests in reading, math, and science. Teachers of social studies, foreign languages, and physical education are suffering the same fate in many schools.

Adding insult to injury, studies in the arts and humanities are being cut in schools enrolling a high proportion of students who live in poverty and minority students. Even though President Bush championed NCLB as the best way to eliminate "the soft discrimination of low expectations," the law has actually lowered the prospect for excellence in many schools.

"Public Education in the Crosshairs" documents how and why NCLB is being contested across the nation. Legal challenges to law and exemptions from it have been mounted in forty-seven states. In addition to gaining insights from this documentary, the Web site nclbrebellion.org is tracking this outpouring of discontent.

I highly recommend this independently produced documentary and look forward to the rest of the programs. The executive producers of "Public Education in the Crosshairs" are Todd Alan Price of Chicago, Illinois; Karen Rybold Chin of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; and Geoff Berne of Hamilton, Ohio.

For inquiries regarding this program or to order a VHS or DVD at $19.95 contact: Northwest Ordinance Productions, Inc. at 262-567-7159 or [e-mail].

Laura H. Chapman is an independent consultant and writer on arts education based in Cincinnati, Ohio. A Distinguished Fellow of the NAEA, she has published two invited articles and a book chapter on NCLB, in addition to offering public lectures on the law.