NCLB: Empowered to Ignore

No Child Left Behind, supposedly an antidote to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," has instead spawned lowered standards. The law will eventually be reauthorized because doubling down on losing bets is what Washington does. But because NCLB contains incentives for perverse behavior, reauthorization should include legislation empowering states to ignore it.

That's George Will's take on NCLB and it's also likely going to be the sad legacy of the endeavor, also. Funny, just a handful of years ago, this blog was crawling with Republican bloggers making the case for the legislation. Give 'em enough time and maybe they'll go back to wanting to dismantle the Department of Education. Such is the schizophrenia on the right these days.