GOP Heeds Cries From Buffy & Biff

We've been saying for a long time that politicians don't listen to the poor. It's taking parents from the affluent suburbs of Scarsdale and Potomac to get the attention of GOP lawmakers who voted for No Child Left Behind:

Some Republicans said yesterday that a backlash against the law was inevitable. Many voters in affluent suburban and exurban districts -- GOP strongholds -- think their schools have been adversely affected by the law. Once-innovative public schools have increasingly become captive to federal testing mandates, jettisoning education programs not covered by those tests, siphoning funds from programs for the talented and gifted, and discouraging creativity, critics say.

None of this mattered when the victims were the poor, the brown and the black kids in the chain gang schools of the inner city. Those canaries were quite expendable in this dark mine.

"So many people are frustrated with the shackles of No Child Left Behind," DeMint said. "I don't think anyone argues with measuring what we're doing, but the fact is, even the education community . . . sees us just testing, testing, testing, and reshaping the curriculum so we look good."

Parent unrest in places such as Scarsdale, N.Y., and parts of suburban Michigan could affect members of Congress. Connecticut has sued the government over the law, while legislatures in Virginia, Colorado and heavily Republican Utah have moved to supersede it.

Seth, Caitlyn, Buffy and Biff will sleep better tonight.