Obama's War on Schools

Ravitch, Diane, Newsweek

Byline: Diane Ravitch; Ravitch is a historian and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System.

The No Child Left Behind Act has been deadly to public education. So why has the president embraced it?

Over the past year, I have traveled the nation speaking to nearly 100,000 educators, parents, and school-board members. No matter the city, state, or region, those who know schools best are frightened for the future of public education. They see no one in a position of leadership who understands the damage being done to their schools by federal policies.

They feel keenly betrayed by President Obama. Most voted for him, hoping he would reverse the ruinous No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation of George W. Bush. But Obama has not sought to turn back NCLB. His own approach, called Race to the Top, is even more punitive than NCLB. And though over the past week the president has repeatedly called on Congress to amend the law, his proposed reforms are largely cosmetic and would leave the worst aspects of NCLB intact.

The theory behind NCLB was that schools …

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Publication information: Article title: Obama's War on Schools. Contributors: Ravitch, Diane - Author. Magazine title: Newsweek. Volume: 157. Issue: 14 Publication date: April 4, 2011. Page number: 20. © 2009 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale Group.

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