EDUCATORS for DEAN

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No Child Left Behind "You [President Bush] claimed that your education program would live up to its name and that No Child would be Left Behind. Instead, school districts all across the country, including in your home state of Texas, are dumbing down their tests to ensure that their schools are not labeled as needing improvement. No Child Left Behind turns out to be a huge unfunded mandate on local governments that now must raise property taxes or find other sources of revenue to meet their legal obligations under the Act.” –Gov. Howard Dean "The President's ultimate goal is to make the public schools so awful, and starve them of money, just as he's starving all the other social programs for money, so that the people give up on the public schools. --Gov. Howard Dean Gov. Dean has been one of the most outspoken critics of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) since President Bush signed it in January 2002. The law, in Gov. Dean’s estimation, is an inordinately burdensome and intrusive unfunded mandate that usurps considerable authority from states and local districts—the appropriate domains of educational decision making. The president’s agenda is clear: To drain local education budgets by ratcheting up testing requirements (a boon for the school testing business) in order to declare the public school system ultimately defunct and enhance the case for vouchers and other privatization initiatives. Gov. Dean is an ardent supporter of public schools, and he believes that federal school reform efforts should seek genuinely to improve public schools—not dismantle and abandon them. Further, as a governor he has directly felt the impact of the president’s unfunded mandates and has pledged to pass no legislation that does not carry appropriate funding. "No School Board Left Standing," a September 6, 2003, statement by Gov. Dean issued regarding the president's radio address on NCLB. “On The Record: Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,” an April 22, 2002, interview with Stateline.org “Dean Criticizes Bush Schools Fix,” a June 10, 2003, press release from the Dean campaign Educators for Dean home