We Don't Need No (Federal) Education

The National Conference of State Legislatures yesterday issued a report on the No Child Left Behind Act. To translate into Hayekese, the upshot appears to be that "accountability" to uniform federal standards is limiting the ability of actors on the ground—teachers—to deploy their local knowledge about the needs of their students. The bipartisan task force also questioned the constitutionality of the act. Click here for a detailed summary of findings and the full draft report in PDF. Lisa Snell skewered NCLB from a different angle in our October issue.

Comments

[Gary Gunnels]

Or Bastiatese.

[PintofStout]

Starting at the federal level is just a start. The state education monopoly must be broken, too.

[thoreau]

Just one question: Do they want to end federal involvement in education, or do they want the money to keep coming without strings?

[phocion]

thoreau,

Well, one of their recommendations is "Substantially increase federal funding for the law."

[thoreau]

Thanks for the info, phocion. Maybe I should actually read the article.

Anyway, it sounds like they want to replace the current form of NCLB (a lot of spending but a lot of micromanagement) with something that would involve more spending and less accountability.

I don't know which is worse: Federal programs with lots of strings (micromanagement), or federal programs with few strings (a sure recipe for waste). Fortunately, I do know of a better alternative: Ending the program altogether. Sadly, ain't gonna happen.

[Dynamist]

But wait, thoreau, there is a third way: Duplicate programs! Some micromanaged, some unaccountable, but together certainly large enough to appease all the interests.

[WSDave]

Quite Dynamist!!! You'll give them ideas!

[WSDave]

sorry..quiet