Politics, Ideology, and Education

I've been reading Elizabeth DeBray's book of that title (subtitle: Federal Policy During the Clinton and Bush Administrations).  I learned 2 things.

First, we have Osama bin Laden to thank for NCLB.  Many of the elements of NCLB were championed by the Clinton Administration.  But the Republicans hated it.  Abolition of the Dept of Education was a plank in the Republican platform in the 1996 election.  After 9/11, education was Bush's top domestic priority, and Republicans went along with it in a show of party loyalty with their wartime president.  Kennedy was initially sidelined (Bush's guys were negotiating with the New Democrats, like Lieberman), but then got involved, softening the bill a bit and extracting a bit more funding.  Only Paul Wellstone, bless his soul, took an active stand against all the standardized testing and draconian punishments.

Second, both researchers and educators were completely locked out.  In other words, everyone who actually knew something was excluded.

Plus ca change we can believe in.  We still have terrorists and nitwits in charge of setting our education policy.