Centralized schools.(No Child Left Behind: The Dangers of Centralized Education Policy)(policy analysis)

Lawrence Uzzell, "No Child Left Behind: The Dangers of Centralized Education Policy," Cato Institute, May 31, 2005 (cato.org)

When it comes to domestic policy, the Bush administration is perhaps proudest of its achievements in education. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is frequently hailed as a bipartisan triumph. Accepting the nomination at the 2004 Republican Party convention, President Bush said that NCLB is "the most important federal education reform in history." Lawrence Uzzell, who has examined education policy in both the executive and legislative branches, argues that NCLB is the wrong strategy, attempting to solve the problems of centralization with yet more centralization.

Part of the problem is that, by federalizing the education issue, NCLB depends on forcing states to do things they are unwilling to do on their own. This means that the federal government will either have to give the states great leeway, in which case NCLB might as well not exist, or else amend the statute to make it more prescriptive and centralized. In the latter case, Uzzell says, "Washington's education officials will more and more resemble Soviet central planners trying to improve economic performance by micromanaging decisions from Moscow." Moreover, it will almost certainly grant more power to the educational establishment, with its focus on "self-esteem."

Another huge problem with NCLB is its dependence on quantitative data about graduation rates, ...