Standardized Testing for Elected Officials

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

14 September 12

ahm Emanuel wants to cheapen education to make it conform to a standardized testing model. So how about we come up with standardized testing models to see how our do-nothing politicians measure up?

As long as do-nothing legislators demand teachers be held accountable to their approved version of a standardized test, all elected officials, from city council members and boards of selectmen, to mayors and state legislators, to members of the U.S. House and Senate and the presidency, should be held accountable to a citizens' standardized test drafted by all of us. We'll measure them on job growth, the rank of our education and healthcare systems, the ratio between rises in the cost of living as opposed to wage increases, the ratio between money spent on wars overseas as opposed to money spent on domestic services, the ratio spent on public school students as opposed to prisoners, CO2 emissions, air and water quality, taxes collected from those who owe, and job approval ratings, for starters.

According to the standardized test we just drafted, all members of Congress would immediately be ineligible for re-election, as they have held as low as a 9% approval rating in the last year, and job growth has slowed to a trickle largely due to Congress's failure to act on job creation bills, like the American Jobs Act in fall of 2011. And seeing as our Pentagon budget has surpassed $700 billion, which greatly surpasses the money spent by Uncle Sam on environmental protection, education and job training, Congress gets a big fat F in the spending category. They would also unequivocally fail in the CO2 emissions category because of their failure to address climate change, deny a cap-and-trade program, and move forward with the disastrous Keystone XL pipeline project.

Any state government that has ignored revising their tax code to crack down on individual and corporate tax dodgers in favor of cutting budgets for education and other public programs across the board is thus failing in the categories of job creation, tax collection, domestic spending, and education rankings. To really boost their grades, they would have to shift the tax burden from the poor and middle class to the wealthy, properly fund schools and public health programs, and allocate more dollars to public transportation to encourage hiring on things like rail projects. Environmental grades and job creation grades could be boosted as well by allocating money for making homes and buildings more energy-efficient.

If legislators wanted to boost their grades in CO2 emissions and water/air quality, they would have to cease fracking operations that pollute water supplies and coal mining practices that pollute the air, and replace those forms of energy with more sustainable means like solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power. If state lawmakers want their job approval ratings to go up, they should see to it that more money is spent on students, and less on prisons. An easy way to manage that would be to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

You know, this standardized testing thing for legislators seems like a great way for us to hold them accountable, and a great way for them to stay elected by making sure they pass the test. Just like we do with school students, we'll administer the test each year. Except instead of giving the test in the Spring, we'll give the test one week before election day. And any elected official who gets an F on the citizens' standardized test shouldn't be re-elected.

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Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. You can contact Carl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and listen to his online radio talk show, Swag The Dog, at blogtalkradio.com/swag-the-dog.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.