Commentary

Debating the No Child Left Behind Act: New Reason Roundtable

Should No Child Left Behind Act be fixed or scrapped? That’s the question addressed by the contributors to the latest Reason Roundtable. But they have diametrically opposite views. Erin Dillon of Education Sector emphatically argues to fix it and Andrew Coulson of the Cato institute equally emphatically to scrap it. Dillon believes that those who maintain that NCLB is useless if it does not give parents an exit option to take their kids to whichever school they want are naÃ?¯ve. They end up wasting precious resources on dead-end political battles, leaving in the lurch parents whose kids are stuck in failing schools. They are making the perfect the enemy of the good. Coulson believes that the NCLB is a useless distraction that hasn’t ââ?¬â?? and can’t ââ?¬â?? do anything to reform public schools while violating our constitution. He thinks the only way to help parents is to get rid of the law and push school choice initiatives at the local and state levels now. Check out their discussion and post your own thoughts below: https://reason.org/roundtable/nochildleftbehind.shtml