The time has come for a new abolitonist movement aimed at ending the attacks on public education and restoring the democratic traditions of public schools in this nation. The first step in doing that will be the abolition of “No Child Left Behind.”No Child Left Behind is one of the worst laws ever passed by the U.S. Congress. It cannot be repaired, and it has delayed addressing the real problems facing America’s public schools — especially those public schools that try to serve the growing number of poor children in this country. No Child Left Behind has to be abolished when it comes back for a vote one year from now. It can’t be fixed.

It has now been four years since the bipartisan passage of No Child Left Behind and more than 15 years since the birth of the “standards and accountability” movement plaguing American public education. Both have hurt the education of children and democracy in our public schools and should be ended now. They will not improve with further aging. The longer they are allowed to continue the more damage they will do. The expense of these things is measured least in the dollars they waste. The real expense of No Child Left Behind and the corporate versions of “school reform” that have spewed forth since “A Nation at Risk” are spiritual. They promote dishonesty. They elevate lies and punish honest people. They demoralize teachers and destroy children.

Yet some people whom we respect still propose that No Child Left Behind can be repaired by tinkering and that the movement for “standards and accountability” is a good thing. We break with them this month.

    No Child Left Behind is the other Big Lie of the Bush years. Like the Iraq invasion, it received ‘bipartisan’ support and praise — mostly from millionaire Congressmen and Senators who didn’t bother to read it . Like the Iraq fiasco, it is sustained by an army of pundits and preachers, many of whom are being subsidized directly or indirectly to continue their lies. Like the occupation of Iraq, NCLB must be ended because it can’t be fixed. NCLB is based on the evil corporate lie that schools and children can be measured best with multiple-choice computer-scored ‘standardized’ tests — and then reported like industrial output on a spreadheet’s ‘bottom line.’ This amerliorative approach has no place for us. Abolition, not amelioration, is the only solution to these twin problems.

    A number of those whom we respect have labored over the past couple of years to come up with various fixes for No Child Left Behind. Implicit for many of these people is the notion that something this bad can be fixed. Our view is the contrarian one. No Child Left Behind has caused terrible damage to America’s public schools, teachers, and children. It will continue to spread that damage until it has been abolished. There are some times in history when abolition — not amerlioration — is the only reasonable solution to a problem. This is one of those times. In the coming months, we will be analyzing the NCLB news from this perspective.