Letter to the editor: Money drives too much school change

Canton Repository, January 15, 2006 Regarding “Ohio should abandon graduation test, use ACT instead” (Jan. 1), Judge W. Don Reader of the Stark Education Partnership stated that replacing the Ohio Graduation Test with the ACT makes too much sense. Many in education may agree with Judge Reader. The problem, however, isn’t that the ACT makes sense. The problem is that the OGT makes too much cents! Many people still do not realize that our public education system is politically driven. The key author of No Child Left Behind, Nina Shokraii Rees from Heritage Testing, worked with Rod Paige, former education secretary in the Bush administration, on the idea of rigorous testing of our schoolchildren. Since the inception of NCLB, the testing companies have doubled and tripled their profits. This, in turn, has cost school districts millions of dollars that aren't being recuperated, as promised, by NCLB. Unfortunately, many people making decisions at the state, federal and perhaps, to some degree, the local level don’t have a clue about what our schools or our schoolchildren truly need. The only concern is a fat wallet! When can we expect some positive changes? TRACI C. COTTRELL, CANTON