As President George W. Bush leaves office with the No Child Left Behind Act as his education legacy, advocates look to the Obama administration with high expectations.
Education advocates — Black, Brown and White — had high hopes when George W. Bush took office eight years ago announcing he would usher in a new era of compassionate conservatism.
President Bush’s education legacy is inexorably tied to the No Child Left Behind Act, the comprehensive K-12 reform law he signed in January 2002. The law has drawn praise for requiring schools to show specific progress in educating minority and low-income children or face sanctions for failing to do so. But critics say the Bush administration failed to provide sufficient funding to support the law’s goals. Some also contend that the law forces educators to rely too heavily on “teaching to the test.”
What efforts Bush put into the country’s colleges and universities, many experts say, were too little too late.
