Clark blasts No Child Left Behind

Here's an exchange with Wesley Clark at a New Hampshire campaign event December 20. I don't really have a horse in this race, but any candidate who can cut through the b.s. regarding the assault on public education, and beat Bush, is my kind of Democrat.

Q: I'd like you to answer a question about education.

WC: Okay

Q: I'm head of social studies for the national public schools.

WC: Uh-huh.

Q: Are you aware that in the No Child Left Behind legislation there is absolutely no provision for assessment of social studies...

WC: Yes I am.

Q: ...which includes civics...

WC: I know

Q: ...well what are you going to do about it?

WC: I'm going to get rid of No Child Left Behind.

Q: Totally? Scrap the whole piece of legislation?

WC: I think there's so many things wrong with No Child Left Behind: a) it's not funded, b) it tests the wrong things, c) it doesn't measure the right things in the tests, d) it disqualifies qualified education personnel, e) it's fundamentally designed to punish and humiliate public schools and deprive the public of confidence in their schools. It's a bad piece of legislation. It's a Trojan Horse bill. We're going to take care of it.

Q: Good. Thank you very much.

You can see the exchange yourself at cspan.org.

This was a rapid, precise, blaze of fury. The guy can think about three orders of magnitude faster than the current (p)resident of the White House. The press doesn't have to say, well, we know what he really means.

Browse for, "Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.) Pancake Breakfast Campaign Event," in the 2004 Vote section. Starts at 1:00:58.

Cross-posted at www.Gropinator.net