NEA President Uses Economic Competitiveness to Strike at NCLB

Philadelphia

Tapping into widespread concern about the nation’s economic competitiveness, National Education Association President Reg Weaver charged here yesterday that the federal No Child Left Behind Act won’t “prepare [our children] to compete with children from India and China.”

In a keynote speech before more than 8,000 delegates to the teachers’ union annual Representative Assembly , Mr. Weaver contended that the nearly 6-year-old law is eroding the “excellent education” most public school students now get while doing little to effectively close the achievement gaps that disadvantage black, Hispanic, and American Indian children.

“The so-called ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act assumed that schools by themselves could close the achievement gaps. But we can’t close the achievement gaps without bridging other chasms in our society,” such as the ones caused by poverty and unemployment, Mr....