NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT

No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Left Behind Act-Conctitution

The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is a legal, practical and strategic mistake. It transgresses limits on federal power enshrined in the Constitution; is inherently incapable of delivering on its promises; wastes staggering amounts of money that could be helping to educate children; and distracts attention from genuine market reforms that would actually accomplish its goals.

Of course conservative supporters of federal intervention in education have their own take on the Tenth Amendment. They think it should be ignored. No less illustrious a duo than former education secretaries William Bennett and Roderick Paige have characterized the views expressed in the preceding paragraphs as a "naïve commitment to states' rights." Perhaps that's the sort of trenchant constitutional analysis they would mandate that children be taught in their federally-controlled schools.

Even if NCLB were constitutional, and even if it substantively expanded school choice in the short term, it would remain a bad idea. As I have argued elsewhere, federal school choice measures that involve Uncle Sam handing out vouchers would likely result in the federal regulation of private schools, smothering the kind of real market activity that is necessary to make broadest possible choices available. I won't bother to rehash that argument here because NCLB does not in fact create meaningful school choice. As originally envisaged by President Bush, NCLB included a provision for students in failing public schools to receive vouchers for private school tuition. That provision was dropped from the initial drafts before the laser printers had stopped humming. What the law does require is that states offer students in failing schools the option of attending another public school. That is no more meaningful than the choice of colors that Henry Ford offered on his Model T ("any color you want, so long as it's black"). Public schools in most states are tightly constrained in the curricula they teach, the people they can hire, the salaries they can set, and the tests they administer. A "choice" of public schools is thus not a meaningful market choice.

No Child Left Behind Act-Florida State Law

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (often abbreviated in print as NCLB) is a United States Act of Congress that was originally proposed by the administration of President George W. Bush immediately after taking office. The bill, shepherded through the Senate by Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the bill's co-authors, received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. The House of Representatives passed the bill on May 23, 2001 (voting 384-45), and United States Senate passed it on June 14, 2001 (voting 91-8). President Bush signed it into law on January 8, 2002.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in ways to strengthen parent involvement and choice in education. The most critical amendments focus attention and resources on improving low-performing schools and providing access for all students to high quality ...