Times Refuses to Blame Republicans for Failure of No Child Left Behind

The New York Times Sunday Magazine on November 26 featured a cover story and lengthy article to examining why America’s low-income children are poorly educated. Paul Tough’s “What It Will Really Take to Close The Education Gap” sought to explain why, despite the 2002 passage of the No Child Left Behind law, the racial and class achievement gap had not narrowed and the education of low-income children remained inadequate. After citing a wide range of studies, Tough concludes that America could create an education system that brings most low-income students to high levels of achievement if we had the political will to spend the necessary funds. What a revelation! Unfortunately, Tough never reveals that Democrats have argued for years that No Child Left Behind was inadequately funded, and that President Bush and the Republican Congress opposed increasing spending. Rather than tell his readers who is really at fault, Tough falsely implies it is a bipartisan failure.