"The Department of Education of course is a monstrosity that was created back in Jimmy Carter's administration as a payoff, literally, to the teacher's union for support. Of course, just recently under President Bush, who collaborated with Ted Kennedy, they put together the No Child Left Behind Act which gave the Department of Education more power and more authority over education than had ever been known before in this country... Again, the Department of Education is one of those departments that when I become president will no longer exist...

If the federal intrusion into education worked as they said it would work, then why are we slipping every year it seems, further and further down on the competence level when you compare our test scores to the other industrialized nations of the world. Now if federal dollars was the answer, if federal involvement was the answer, then this would not be happening. This dumbing down would not be occurring, and the falling behind in education would not be happening. The fact that it is happening is a testament to the reality of the situation, which is that the more the federal government gets involved in education the worse education becomes."
Aug. 11, 2008 Chuck Baldwin

"No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind: The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers."
Jan. 28, 2008 Barack Obama

"For those who are in education, you already know that the No Child Left Behind Act, which was intended to provide more resources for schools and create more support for the teaching and learning enterprise has unfortunately not been either funded or implemented, in my view, effectively or appropriately."
Jan. 28, 2008 Hillary Clinton

"George Bush's No Child Left Behind law is not working for schools, teachers and – most importantly – our children, and it needs to be radically overhauled."
Jan. 29, 2008 John Edwards

"It seems to me the thing that's wrong right at the core of No Child Left Behind is the enforcer of standards should not be the bureaucrat in Washington or on the board of education. It should be the parent. We should have choice. We should empower parents. They should decide -- private school, parochial school, public school, charter school, home school.

That will give the parents the kind of control over their children's education. They understand their children better. Why should a government bureaucrat be sending 168,000 children to failing schools when parents think they can do better for their children? I think it's the single biggest civil rights issue that we face in the 21st century."
Oct. 21, 2007 Rudy Giuliani

"No Child Left Behind is a failure. Our whole system of education is in trouble. All of the stakeholders are all at fault -- a third of our children don't graduate from high school. That is appalling."
Oct. 16, 2007 Mike Gravel

"No. Government involvement in education -- and particularly federal government involvement in education -- doesn't work. The federal government provides a small percentage of overall education funding in America, but NCLB [No Child Left Behind] imposes uniform standards and central planning on thousands of schools and millions of students in very diverse places and situations. No two communities are the same. No two STUDENTS are the same. How can we expect a bureaucrat in Washington, DC to know what all those communities and all those students need from their schools?"
Jan. 31, 2008 Steve Kubby

"I don't believe so. A one size fits all approach to education will never work in a country as diverse as ours. All it has accomplished is the establishment of another bureaucracy and a system that now does its best to teach to the test so that they look good. Whether or not the children truly learn anything is irrelevant, as long as they do well on the 'test'."
Jan. 24, 2008 Frank McEnulty

"Congress is now considering whether to continue this cycle by passing the national five-year plan contained in H.R. 1, the so-called 'No Child Left Behind Act.' A better title for this bill is 'No Bureaucrat Left Behind' because, even though it's proponents claim H.R. 1 restores power over education to states and local communities, this bill represents a massive increase in federal control over education. H.R. 1 contains the word 'ensure' 150 times, 'require' 477 times, 'shall' 1,537 and 'shall not' 123 times. These words are usually used to signify federal orders to states and localities. Only in a town where a decrease in the rate of spending increases is considered a cut could a bill laden with federal mandates be considered an increase in local control!

If, after the experience of the past thirty years, you believe that federal bureaucrats are better able to meet children's unique educational needs than parents and communities then vote for H.R. 1. However, if you believe that the failures of the past shows expanding federal control over the classroom is a recipe for leaving every child behind then do not settle for some limited state flexibility in the context of a massive expansion of federal power: Reject H.R. 1 and instead help put education resources back into the hands of parents by supporting my Family Education Freedom Act and Education Improvement Tax Cut Act."
May 23, 2001 Ron Paul

"No."
Feb. 7, 2008 Christine Smith