"No Child Left Behind Lacks Bite."
This is not exactly news to Flypaper readers, but it's great that the Wall Street Journal is spreading the word:
Critics of the federal No Child Left Behind law, including Democratic presidential candidates vowing to overhaul or end it, have often accused it of being too harsh. It punishes weak schools instead of supporting them, as Sen. Barack Obama puts it. But when it comes to the worst-performing schools, the 2001 law hasn't shown much bite. The more-radical restructuring remedies put forth by the law have rarely been adopted by these schools, many of which aren't doing much to address their problems, according to a federal study last year.
To solve a problem first you have to diagnose it correctly. And calling NCLB "too harsh" is surely not the right diagnosis.
