NCLB: Conservative Plot or Not?

The debate over how and whether to renew No Child Left Behind will heat up in the months ahead. It's been five years since NCLB was enacted, and conservatives and liberals will have an opportunity to evaluate the results of the legislation, and to again debate the intentions behind it. The WaPo has this editorial on the question of whether 100% achievement of the standards is even feasible, and whether the rhetorical brilliance of "no child left behind" hamstrings us to it's renewal.

Kevin Drum and Michael Iglesias debate the editorial. Drum sees NCLBs 100% compliance requirement as a plot by conservatives to force public schools to fail, a covert attempt to push their school voucher, anti-union, pro-evangelical agenda for education. I think that Iglesias rightly finds that view a bit paranoid, but the motivation Drum mentions will have some appeal to many conservative members of Congress that will weigh in on NCLB's renewal.

Iglesias finds it more concerning that the 100% compliance requirement actually dumbs down the academic standards for achievement, and creates a floor rather than a ceiling for proficiency. I think this is the real issue. Academic achievement is a wildly variable target, and to shoehorn our extremely heterogeneous school system into a uniform standard with funding penalties attached inevitably leads to lowering the bar for success.