Morning Bell: Send Education Dollars and Decision-Making Back Home

Mike Brownfield / June 13, 2011

The Obama Administration has another problem on its hands. The mighty hand of the federal government has its grip on education in the form of the No Child Left Behind federal law on public education, but the trouble is that the law isn’t working. Instead of a top-down approach to education, it’s time for restoring state and local control over education, while downsizing the Department of Education.

That’s a lesson that Education Secretary Arne Duncan needs to learn.

In an interview last week, Duncan expressed frustration at the “slow motion train wreck” that is No Child Left Behind, which is up for re-authorization. Under the law, all children are required to be proficient in math and reading by 2014—a standard that could leave three-quarters of U.S. schools labeled as failures, leaving them at risk of losing federal funding. (more…)