John: While at The American Conservative, I wrote a piece on the fourth anniversary of No Child Left Behind (not this piece on the grassroots revolt). I was struck at how overwhelmingly education policy analysts from the left to the right, except for dissenters at Heritage and Cato, were for NCLB despite the opposition from so many parents, teachers, and bureaucrats. It became clear to me the issue wasn’t the details of NCLB but the fact that so many elements of the legislation reflected an ed-policy wonks’ wish list. Petrelli was a source for the story.
