It's Politics for Education

This article appeared in the NY Times about NCLB and the upcoming Presidential race. Most of the Dems are against it. From the article:

"Mrs. Clinton is not the only presidential candidate who has found attacking the act, President Bush’s signature education law, to be a crowd pleaser — all the Democrats have taken pokes. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has said he wants to “scrap” the law. Senator Barack Obama has called for a “fundamental” overhaul. And John Edwards criticizes the law as emphasizing testing over teaching. “You don’t make a hog fatter by weighing it,” he said recently while campaigning in Iowa.

This was to be the year that Congress renewed the law that has reshaped the nation’s educational landscape by requiring public schools to bring every child to reading and math proficiency by 2014. But defections from both the right and the left killed the effort.

Now, as lawmakers say they will try again, the unceasing criticism of the law by Democratic presidential contenders and the teachers’ unions that are important to them promises to make the effort even more treacherous next year."

It's more important to the Dems than the Republican candidates because of the support of the teachers' union(s) to the Democrats. Most of the candidates agree NCLB has problems but support accountability. Rep. George Miller of California attempted to rewrite the law this year to satisfy both sides - for Reps. who believe the law intrudes on states' rights and forDems who see it as punitive - but it failed. Rep. Miller and Senator Ted Kennedy of Mass. (one of the original creators of NCLB) are going to attempt it again this year.