Facts

Education policy is based on achievement. After all, if students aren't learning, why teach? Educators and lawmakers look at achievement from two angles: how well are American students doing overall – and how successfully are our schools shrinking the gap between minority and non-minority achievement and between lower and higher income groups).

Facts

The Skinny

see also background & facts, pro & con, links

What's up

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), today's version of the federal government's funding program for public schools, is up for renewal in 2007. Seen as President Bush’s signature education policy, NCLB, which aims to insure all students are 100% proficient in reading, writing and math by 2014, has had mixed results when it's come to testing time. The law has also earned itself a legion of critics who say it sets demands too high and funds too low.