Rand Paul Leads Fight Against No Child Left Behind

From The New American:

During a blogger's conference hosted by the Heritage Foundation, Sen. Paul explained that President Bush's education law departed from the traditional Republican stance on education, which is, low federal governance and more local influence. But rather than placing more control back to the people, NCLB siphoned off more power into the hands of politicians — and Washington politicians, nonetheless.

Speaking at the conference, the Tea Party favorite explained that the Republican platform, under Ronald Reagan, staunchly opposed the Department of Education. "Now, at the very least, if we could just be against No Child Left Behind," Paul suggested, "which is not the entire Department of Education but actually doubled the size of the Department of Education, doubled the number of workers and increased federal control of education — all things that conservatives are ostensibly against."

Sen. Paul and other Republicans plan to release over 100 amendments to stall the reauthorization, which is sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Paul and his Republican colleagues plan to make mandatory provisions of the act voluntary, but the Kentucky Senator said their "number one amendment will be repeal of the entire No Child Left Behind [law]."

Topping out at a whopping 860 pages, the reauthorization bill seems reminiscent of ObamaCare, Paul contended. "We will make a stink out of the fact that nobody is going to read it. We haven't had one hearing on [reauthorizing] No Child Left Behind. They said, 'Oh, we had them in previous years.' Well, I wasn't here in previous years and I've got a vote on it. I would have liked the teachers to come in, the superintendents, the principals."

Reason on No Child Left Behind here, on Rand Paul here. Link via [insert adjective here] commenter Joe M.