I think we're probably going to have to agree to disagree on this. :D NCLB was (a) Bush's education initiative, a major part of his election platform, and one of the very first pieces of legislation he introduced after he was inaugurated - he was in office less than a week before he trotted it out; and (b) an immediate and direct continuation and expansion of what he did to education in Texas. Its origins and its power both derive directly from his office, and if someone were looking for someone to blame for its policies and its failures, I think it's entirely fair to look no further than the Bush administration.
(I will agree that this standards obsession is truly bipartisan, but I think that's less an issue of policy and more an issue of reductionist thinking. Some of the ideas were widely held at the turn of the decade, but the actual policy? That's all GWB.)
no subject
I think we're probably going to have to agree to disagree on this. :D NCLB was (a) Bush's education initiative, a major part of his election platform, and one of the very first pieces of legislation he introduced after he was inaugurated - he was in office less than a week before he trotted it out; and (b) an immediate and direct continuation and expansion of what he did to education in Texas. Its origins and its power both derive directly from his office, and if someone were looking for someone to blame for its policies and its failures, I think it's entirely fair to look no further than the Bush administration.
(I will agree that this standards obsession is truly bipartisan, but I think that's less an issue of policy and more an issue of reductionist thinking. Some of the ideas were widely held at the turn of the decade, but the actual policy? That's all GWB.)