Education should be controlled locally. The federal government should not be preempting the parent's authority over their own child. Local educational authorities working with the parents and the teachers are all that is needed to make our schools better.
The federal government should be out of education completely. The money being taken from the taxpayers of each of our states to meddle with our schools should stop immediately. Education is a state and local issue. The parents have and should have the primary responsibility concerning the education of their child.
NCLB and the Department of Education have increased the cost and bureaucracy of education while reducing accountability to parents and lowering standards by draining resources and causing the focus to be on a top down, one size fits all approach.
I am a strong advocate for accountability and high standards. That is why I have spent years serving on a local Board of Education. But federally mandated reports that isolate the parents, teachers and local education authorities from the operations and control of our schools are not the answer. Parents and students, nor anyone else on the local level, do not get to see the test after they are graded. I would repeal NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and eliminate the Department of Education. That money can be more effectively managed at the local level.