Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

The National Conference of State Legislatures are not a happy group. They do not like the No Child Left Behind program.

The conference believes the law is unconstitutional but officials say the organization won’t challenge it. That doesn’t mean someone else won’t.

Mercy. They finally agree that the Department of Education really isn’t accounted for in the Constitution? So why don’t they challenge the constitutionality?

President Bush was in Europe when the report was issued but is unlikely to take kindly to criticism of what he considers one of his signature pieces of legislation. His reaction is likely to be much like that of House Education Committee Chairman John Boehner: “They want the funding No Child Left Behind is providing, but they don’t want to meet the high standards that come with it.”

Federal money. The salve for all governmental wounds. “Just give us the money! We know how to spend it!”

Unfortunately, as I have written several times, and as Paulie has commented many times, money does nothing to cure the problems in education. If anything, money only compounds the problems by continuing to feed the monster eating our children.

A definite change in approach and attitude is needed. I cannot with any confidence say that teachers unions are at fault. But I can point a finger at those who control teacher certification, and legislators who feel compelled to throw money at the problem because they aren’t creative enough to do anything else. State school boards control many of the things that cause problems in schools, and are pretty much unaccountable to anyone. They hold position through glad-handing of teachers’ unions and legislators, as well as the institutional guild apprenticeship programs (to steal a phrase from one of my commenters) that perpetuate a system devoted to process rather than quality.

Every year wasted debating money rather than the system’s structure punishes kids.

For once, I’d like to see the educational establishment and legislators actually do something “for the children.”