Recess

Cum hoc ergo propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, hic hoc dickory doc, and the fallacy of exclusion all rob kids of the one small pleasure of being a kid: recess.

Just the facts, ma'am:

• Recess is being cut, nationwide
• Mean scores on standardized tests show geographical heterogeneity (see chart below)
• Mean scores from the US below mean of all OECD scores in mathematics, statistically indistinguishable from average in science, slightly above average in reading.
• Annual national income accounting shows that the US is a chronic net importer of foreign goods.
• Manufacturing employment is declining in the US, particularly as a share of all nonfarm private employment.
• Public Law PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has been on the books for just shy of 11 years now.

My memory is a little hazy, but I seem to recall the Bush administration selling NCLB as being some sort of pro-competitiveness measure. The Chinese were eating our lunch when it came to manufacturing output (false) and it was because they were kicking our butts in school or something? It's hard for me to recall for at least a couple of reasons: (a) political kayfabe tends to sap my attention (b) the arguments were based on frivolous mercantilist reasoning rejected centuries ago and (c) I was living overseas when the bill was being debated in Congress. Furthermore, even if you accept the weird proposal that trade is somehow a zrto-sum game and China's prosperity will somehow come at the expense of Americans, and if you accept the equally perplexing proposal that diverging statistical moments somehow account for whatever arcane measure of prosperity you've chosen, you'd still be left with the Herculean task of demonstrating that (1) the appropriate scale for policy is national and (2) political elites are sufficiently wise and capable of prescribing appropriate remedies. Experience appears to reveal this as the false hope it is.

But still, education is not euvoluntary. Something must be done. Anything. Even if it means forcibly depriving children of play time. And hey, if they get all rambunctious in class as a result, fill 'em up with amphetamines, that'll quiet those rascals down.

It was probably a wise move to refrain from calling NCLB a "war on ignorance" or something similar. But the effects are similar enough to the wars on [drugs, terror, poverty, et al]: innocent consumers get swept up in the hysteria surrounding a perceived imperfection, cowed by burnished intellectuals and herded by pompous political elites. Meanwhile, cash is shoved by pitchfork into the maw of well-insulated special interests. Rah rah, Sylvan Learning Centers everywhere.

Country Name	reading	mathematics	science
OECD average	493	496	501
Shanghai-China	556	600	575
Korea-South	539	546	538
Finland	536	541	554
Hong Kong-China	533	555	549
Singapore	526	562	542
Canada	524	527	529
New Zealand	521	519	532
Japan	520	529	539
Australia	515	514	527
Netherlands	508	526	522
Belgium	506	515	507
Norway	503	498	500
Estonia	501	512	528
Switzerland	501	534	517
Poland	500	495	508
Iceland	500	507	496
United States	500	487	502
Liechtenstein	499	536	520
Sweden	497	494	495
Germany	497	513	520
Ireland	496	487	508
France	496	497	498
Chinese Taipei	495	543	520
Denmark	495	503	499
United Kingdom	494	492	514
Hungary	494	490	503
Portugal	489	487	493
Macao-China	487	525	511
Italy	486	483	489
Latvia	484	482	494
Slovenia	483	501	512
Greece	483	466	470
Spain	481	483	488
Czech Republic	478	493	500
Slovak Republic	477	497	490

source