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Tea Party and Teachers Unions, United

By Joseph Lawler on 10.21.11 @ 10:53AM

Politico's Ben Smith notes an unlikely alliance between Tea Partiers and teachers unions trying to reform No Child Left Behind in order to cede some authority over education standards back to the states. Tea Party congressman, such as Rand Paul, believe that the federal government shouldn't be involved in setting standards for teachers, while the AFT and other unions don't want teachers to face tougher standards or accountability measures.

The difference, of course, is that Rand Paul not only wants NCLB repealed, he also wants the Department of Education abolished. The AFT wants the federal handouts to keep coming, but with no strings attached.

NCLB, which was one of George W. Bush's signature projects, might be a good line of demarcation between regular Republicans and so-called constitutional conservatives. There are good reasons to think, as Bush did and, for instance, Mitt Romney does, that it's possible for the federal government to impose market-style reforms on education throughout the country that would benefit students and taxpayers alike. It's just not easy to square with federalism.

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

Jack in Wi.| 10.21.11 @ 12:27PM

Ron Paul for President. Rand Paul for Vice President. They are the team to save America and return her to greatness. They will return this country to fiscal and foreign policy sanity.

MyGirlFriday| 10.21.11 @ 2:20PM

Rand Paul was right to throw a wrench into this bill, even if it is for only twenty four hours. It is over 800 pages and no one has had the time to read it. I t is nothing more than another "We have to pass the bill to know what is in it." Furthermore, Rand Paul's question of "Who wrote this bill" needs to be answered as well. Every teacher I know wants NCLB appealed as well as the Department of Education abolished. Yes, education is a state issue, and has no business with the federal government.

Solo| 10.21.11 @ 2:51PM

Well...the NCLB legislation championed by George Bush was two things:
First....it was an attempt to standardize basic skills achievement, which the teacher's union and the left--but I repeat myself--didn't like one damned bit. The reason the left didn't like it is because it forced a departure from the time spent indoctrinating our children to leftist ideology like "Multicultural Studies" and Global Warming/Mother Gaia Worship classes. There are only so many hours in the day and the lefties damned well didn't want to waste any of that time teaching Math/Reading/Writing when they could be teaching them to hate capitalism.

Second....THIS was a classic example of Neo-Conservative policy. Contrary to the laughable beliefs of clueless rubes like the PaulBots, Neoconservatism is NOT about foreign policy.
Using the power of the Federal Government to advance traditionally conservative views and objectives/outcomes is what neoconservatism is about. This is not an endorsement, by the way. Just a clarification.

Unless and until the Department of Education is abolished, NCLB should not only remain intact, but it should be expanded upon and made more stringent with severe penalties for teachers who fail to bring their students up to speed.

"Idle hands are the Devil's playthings", as they say....and it couldn't be more true than it is regarding the Dept. Of Education and leftist teachers throughout this once great nation.

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