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.