[lbo-talk] Excellent summary of arguments against leave no child behind initiative

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> > By far the most draconian is the provision that by 2014, 100% of
students at any public
> school must be proficient in reading and math on state-developed
tests, or the school faces a
> takeover. 

I am far from endorsing any Bush gang policies, but is it not the case
that local control of schools as at the roots of the less than stellar
state of the US education?  Local control means:

- dependence on local property tax, which creates gross inequality in
school funding;
- the ability of wacky special interest groups to infuse school
curriculum with religious bullshit and similar locally popular nonsense;
- the absence of standard curriculum, which creates the need for- and
legitimation of- standardized testing, which arguably is as bad, if not
worse, than no formal education at all.

In that context, a state takeover is a good thing because it reduces the
local control of education.

Wojtek