Most Americans want 'No Child' law left behind

A significant no confidence vote against NCLB. -Angela

May 31, 2007
Most Americans want 'No Child' law left behind

President Bush has touted education law as a major achievement, but survey shows parents disagree.

A survey of 1,010 American adults reveals that nearly two-thirds of them want Congress to rewrite or outright abolish the landmark No Child Left Behind Act that mandates nationwide testing of elementary students to determine whether public schools are performing adequately.

Controversy about the law has grown in recent months as Congress begins the debate on whether to reauthorize the measure that President Bush has touted as one of the most important achievements of his administration.

Dissent against reauthorization has developed within Bush's own party. Fifty-two Republican House members and five GOP senators are calling for a repeal of the law in favor of a more flexible system of achievement standards.

"This expensive and largely unsuccessful legislation has broadened the scope of the federal government's role in education," Mich. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, said in introducing his bill.

Only about a third of those queried in the Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University poll said they think the law has had a positive influence on public education, while slightly less than half said it has had a negative impact and a fifth were undecided.

Twenty-three percent said they want the law renewed in its current form, 14 percent want it abolished and 49 percent want it amended. Fourteen percent were undecided. Taken together, 63 percent want the law abolished or amended.