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Rep. Hoekstra says Bush education law a massive failure
By Jim Brown
AgapePress
March 9, 2007
(AgapePress) -- A Michigan congressman says Republicans "sold out" on their principles and "sold out" parents and students when they helped President Bush pass the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.
Congress is getting set to take up reauthorization of President Bush's signature education law. One of the law's most vocal critics in Congress, Representative Pete Hoekstra (R -- Michigan), says No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has made schools, school boards, and school administrators "beggars to Washington, DC."
He warns of fallout from perpetuation of NCLB. "If it doesn't happen with this iteration of No Child Left Behind, it will happen with the next one," says Hoekstra. "There will be more testing, there will more mandates, there will be more money; there will be less freedom [and] less flexibility -- and the end result is [that the nation will be] on the doorstep of having a national federal curriculum."
Hoekstra is introducing alternative legislation in the House that will allow states to make the declaration that they will assume the primary responsibility for educating the students in their state.
Copyright © 2007 AgapePress -- All rights reserved.
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