Goals 2000, RIP

Matt Ladner of Children First America looks at whatever happened to Goals 2000.

In September of 1989, President George Herbert Walker Bush and the nation's 50 governors met at an "Education Summit" at Charlottesville, Virginia, and agreed to set education goals for the nation's public schools. A bipartisan affair, the summit eventually resulted in the adoption of "National Education Goals" by the governors and the President. Among the state leaders of this effort was then Governor and future President Bill Clinton, who later codified the goals into federal law. These goals stated that by the year 2000, students would (among other things) "demonstrate competence in challenging subject matter" and be "first in the world in math and science achievement."

As Matt concludes:

Recently, Congress put "Goals 2000" out of business. Doubtlessly, many of the grandees involved have moved on to an assortment of other worthy pursuits. Sadly, a huge number of the children who enrolled in kindergarten in 1989 cannot read and understand this column today.

One has to wonder if someone might be writing something similar about NCLB Act in a decade or so.