NCLB Outrages

Backlash Builds Against No Child Left Behind

Ohanian comment: I agree with the first part of this conservative group's assertion--that asking for more money for NCLB is a terrible thing. It's a bad law that should be eliminated, not one that needs more money. I don't agree with their second assertion--that all federal money on education has been wasted.

Edwatch, a Minnesota-based grass roots group, also known as Maple River Education Coalition, formed to fight school-to-work legislation.

The attacks of presidential hopefuls on No Child Left Behind as an unfunded mandate has them pointing voters in exactly the wrong
direction. Instead of challenging the unconstitutional power grab of central planners in Washington DC in brazen violation of the rule of law (the Constitution is the highest law of the land), they demand more money to implement the federal intervention in what is the legal sovereign authority of the states.

Ignoring evidence from 40 years of failed federal infusion of money into state education systems that has arguably been the cause of
our current education debacle, presidential candidates are calling for more federal money to, once again, "solve" education woes in
our nation. They apparently believe that more money is the solution to NCLB.

The solution to this ill-conceived plan is not MORE federal tax money to the states to implement it. With a noose around the neck
of every state to come under massive federal authority or lose their Title I money, more federal money only tightens that noose.

An example of the growing arrogance of illegitimate federal bureaucracy comes from Eugene W. Hickok, acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, who told the Washington Post:

"This law is perhaps a challenge for us to implement, but it is
the first comprehensive attempt to make sure that every child
everywhere counts. To say no to that is a typical thing for the
states to do."

Mr. Hickok, the law of the land gives all authority over education to the elected representatives and governors of each state in the union, not to you. When you lash out at states for asserting their rightful authority,
you place yourself above the law, above the Constitution, and you willingly violate your sacred trust as a public servant.

2004-02-01
http://www.edwatch.org

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INDEX OF NCLB OUTRAGES