Clinton Beats Obama on No Child Left Behind

I'm not changing my vote yet, but in her Sioux Falls speech yesterday, Senator Hillary Clinton got one thing right that Senator Barack Obama gets wr-- well, not quite right. Clinton said she will "end No Child Left Behind." Period. She said schools in South Dakota aren't like schools in California or New York. (For that matter, she could have really established her SD cred by noting that schools in Faith and Britton aren't like schools in Spearfish and Sioux Falls.) She said our teachers and us parents know best what our kids need, and the federal government needs to be a better partner.

Now Obama isn't wrong on education. He has said No Child Left Behind is "one of the emptiest slogans in the history of politics," an example of insincere politics in which "we praise our educators in speeches and photo-ops, but then abandon them when it comes time to offer the resources and the support you need to do your jobs" [Barack Obama, address to National Education Association annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA, 2007.07.05].

But he hasn't said the magic words: "I will end No Child Left Behind." He sticks instead to the NEA line that we should reform and fully fund the law.

Sorry, Obama, but Clinton is right on this one. No Child Left Behind is an unproductive intrusion of federal power in affairs best handled at the local level. No Child Left Behind should be left to die...

...a position Clinton appears to have adopted only recently from Obama's potential running mate Bill Richardson. Last year, Richardson was the only Dem contender to call for ending NCLB. He even said scrapping the law would be the first thing he would do as President. He called on Clinton last October to support ending the law that she voted for in 2001. Clinton apparently has done that. I can't pin down when she changed: one Boston paper reports her seeking reform rather than repeal last December. But hey, Obama, Clinton has changed; you can too!