Decider Speaks on NCLB: Stay My Course

The underlying (and subterranean) reason for the Bush War on Iraq has not changed since the killing began over four years ago, and neither has the bedrock reason for No Child Left Behind. And just as civilians and soldiers, alike, have been ground up in grizzly meat grinder to assure corporate access to a continuing oil supply under Iraq's desert sands, America's children and teachers and schools continue to provide the cannon fodder in Bush's cynical war to privatize and corporatize public education.

If you thought that the Decider was down to his piggybank in political capital, you could be right. But that does not stop him from continuing to parade the implacable racism of NCLB's impossible demands as a way to combat the soft bigotry of low expectations. Rove at his Orwellian best.

If the impossible testing targets that assure public school failure were to be withdrawn from NCLB--the Sequel, Bush's enthusiasm for "closing the achievement gap" would go the same way as would his interest in "democracy for Iraq" if there were not a fifty year oil supply beneath their desert to keep him focused.

From Bloomberg News:

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said he would not compromise on the ``basic principle'' of the No Child Left Behind U.S. education law, that students need to be tested, and to learn to read and do math at grade level.

Bush, in a statement in Washington today, called on Congress to reauthorize the legislation, which he said was ``vital'' to educating students.

``Now's the time not to roll back accountability or water down standards,'' Bush said in the White House Rose Garden. . . .