The hugely important federal education reform law, No Child Left Behind, has been controversial from the beginning. As such, it has always been in need of strong shepherding through the political process.
Luckily, it has that. The law has a watchful and resolute protector in U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spelling. She constantly defends the need for accountability and doesn't budge on holding educators to higher standards and more regular testing. She also seems to have no illusions about how far congressional Democrats will go to undermine accountability in the educational system and preserve the status quo, thereby pleasing the teachers unions that fill their campaign coffers.
The law has met union resistance from the start. And now that it is up for reauthorization, the unions are doing their best to either gut the law or derail it altogether. Their point person in this effort is Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Education and Labor and who has lately been trying to soften the requirements of NCLB.
Spelling isn't having any of it. She recently fired off a respectful but stern letter to Miller, expressing concerns over his attempts to soften the accountability mechanisms in NCLB and insisting that Congress stick to the “bright-line principles” of the law for the good of our children and our future.
Bravo. Congress needs to be taught a lesson now and then, and it seems the education secretary has the chops to deliver it.
