According to an AP report today, Connecticut filed suit challenging the unfunded mandates of Bushco’s “No Child Left Behind” PR stunt, arguing that Dubya should either fork over the dough to implement the so-called “reforms” or give up the mandates altogether. As you can imagine, this met with the requisite hard-line posturing from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who doesn’t seem to know much about education as far as I can see, but does know how to attack a PBS cartoon series and placate her frothing-at-the-mouth Repug conservative base.
Good for those brie-eating, white-wine-spritzer-sipping, L.L. Bean-docker-khaki-and-cotton-pullover-shirt-wearing politically androgynous intellectuals (I hope Christopher Shays appreciates the tongue-in-cheek characterization).
(I actually attended a few days of training for one of my late-but-definitely-not-lamented former employers a few miles west of Hartford, and I found Connecticut to be an odd state geographically. I drove up Route 15 en route to MA once, and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. However, in the area where I attended my training, it was an odd mix of big-box retail clutter, hills with two-lane roads leading into thick woods a la “Deliverance,” and I-95 that went on for days. It definitely had a "Twilight Zone" kind of feel to it.)
Back to the story - as a refresher, I should point out that Spellings inherited her job from Rod Paige, who originally came with Dubya to the White House after rigging test scores in the Houston school district to comply with requirements in Texas, which devised a similar con job as NCLB (Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose have thoroughly investigated this whole issue, both in their book “Bushwhacked,” which I recommend and more voters should have read before the 2004 election, and in articles written for The Texas Observer – here is a sample).
This link from the Christian Science Monitor provides more background, as well as this from the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages. Finally, Dick Meyer of CBS News wrote this over two years ago, but I believe what he says still holds true today.
Update 8/25: Richard Blumenthal is my hero for standing up to that b...oh, wait a minute; I guess I'd better not use bad words or else another anonymous commentor will take me to task again without commenting on the susbstance of what I'm saying...that not nice person Margaret Spellings regarding the No Child Left Behind scam (yes, I am trying to bring people together if I can...RATIONAL people, that is).
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