Writing in the centrist Democrat magazine, Blueprint, Andrew Rotherham is characteristically perspicacious in warning that the left's opposition to NCLB may make its worst fears of "privatization" come true. He observes that refusing even to acknowledge the need for higher standards and better tracking of achievement data serves to strengthen the argument that only a system of school choice will deliver desired educational improvement. "Failure to eliminate the achievement gap is unlikely, by itself, to substantially alter the political alignment on education," he writes. "But failure to even try seriously validates the conservative argument." Rotherham is for increasing the funding for NCLB, if only because it will make the law's directives on data gathering and teacher quality go down easier for many states and districts. But we suspect he will have a tough time convincing the disparate interests that comprise the Democratic coalition that NCLB is, in the long run, good for them as well as for public education!
"The new face of inequality," by Andrew Rotherham, Blueprint, May 7, 2004