Resolved: An ideal form of No Child Left Behind would be beneficial to the welfare of the U.S.

And thus we see the problems with the ambiguous wording of the resolution. All the same, an ideal form of NCLB is never going to be a good idea. Here is why: 1. First lets go to my argument on how children would be getting expelled. My opponent argues that something in it's perfection would neither allow to heavily or too lightly on test scores. Unfortunately this is a massive fallacy in my opponents logic. Something in it's perfection achieves it's goals perfectly. My opponent mistakes something in it's perfection to do all that is good. But this simply isn't true. Consider the perfect way to kill someone. Is this a good thing? I'd argue no. Simply an amazing way to kill someone. Consider the perfect way to torture someone. Would the perfect way to torture someone be good? No, in fact it would be pretty lame. Thus something in it's ideal form, in it's perfection simply meets it's goals perfectly. The Ideal form of NCLB would do nothing perfect outside of it's goals. It would simply do it's goals perfectly. This is a devastating problem for my opponent.... He claims that the test criteria would be just the perfect amount as not to be too easy as to not educate and not be too difficult as to force expulsion. Unfortunately NCLB never claims to retain school children. Retention is not a goal under NCLB, thus the ideal form of NCLB does not solve for retention what-so-ever. In fact, the ideal form of NCLB has to literally force expulsion. NCLB believes that all children should be held to the same standards in this country. Which literally means, the moment NCLB starts functioning in it's perfection, by meeting it's goals 100%, the majority of mentally handicapped students will be expelled. Secondly though this also means that many other low performing students who just don't care would be expelled. Furthermore keep in my mind that NCLB's goals are not to be fun nor are they to make students want to learn. This means an ideal form of NCLB never does either of those things. An ideal form of NCLB simply perfectly meets it's goals. 2. My second point. My opponent gives some analysis about how students who pass the tests are ready for the real world. This doesn't respond to my point at all. So let me repeat that first. My argument is that schools will lower their own curriculum. Schools will stop teaching students as much. Schools will make it far easier to get A's in classes. Schools will lower their subject matter. Why will schools do this? Because schools will need to increase the amount of time they dedicate to the NCLB tests. In a world where a school literally has to make sure 100% of students graduate, and 100% of students score high on tests then the school cannot afford to focus on it's own curriculum. It MUST teach to the test. Furthermore though my opponents analysis poses major problems. He's saying that in an ideal world of NCLB the tests would be perfect. This would mean that everyone would be able to go out and function in the real world because everyone would be doing well on their tests. There are three problems with this. a. The first is that teaching to the test does not mandate the student learns the material at all. Rather it simply mandates the students memorize the exact types of questions that will be on the test. As an example: I may be amazing at taking the SAT but that does not mean I can succeed in the real world. I can literally learn the testing format, and testing strategies that make it easy for me to acquire a high grade. That doesn't mean I actually knew much of the material. b. The second problem. And the worse of the two. NCLB tests only make sure students are PROFICIENT. Proficient at a high school level. Under and ideal form of NCLB schools would make sure every student (not counting those one's they expel) becomes proficient at a high school level. This conversely means that less time is dedicated to the extremely intelligent kids. In other words it levels the playing field at just proficient. A nation of proficient children. This is a really bad thing in today economic climate. The reason America has power in today's world, economically, is because we can support high end jobs through our education system. On the other hand the majority of what would be considered proficient jobs are disappearing to places such as china where hyper inflation makes it easy for companies to make large profit margins. Check Walmart. c. Which leads me to the third problem. Jobs in America are decreasing in the status quo..... meaning in the best case scenario. Even if my opponent can claim to educate millions of children those jobs can't go anywhere because we're already maxed out and decreasing. Check unemployment rate. 3. Finally we reach my third point. Yet another problem with ideal is the sheer demand of what it would be doing. 100% graduation, test scores ++, and qualified teachers. In fact NCLB itself mandates that some of the schools money (I believe it was 5%-10% last time I read through NCLB) be given to help teachers attain the right amount of certification. This is not only heavily demanding in a fiscal sense on schools, but also is highly demanding in a simple time and management since. Furthermore extend all of my analysis on how NCLB ideal would simply lead to children being expelled. I argue that this, in many cases, would simply lead to more states leaving the program, which in turn would lead to the decrease in funding. The decrease in funding = less viability for education. Finally on this point my opponent makes a statement about how the ideal form of NCLB might mandate that states participate this would be blatantly unconstitutional. The federal government has no direct power to regulate schools in the constitution. This means the power goes to the states. Thus at the end of this round I advocate the current form of NCLB. I argue that it avoids all of the above disadvantages. Furthermore extend my opponents analysis on how the current form of NCLB is working really well. I'd say we stick with the current system as it's much more beneficial. Thanks you!