Allen Said He Would “Take Back” His Vote For No Child Left Behind. “Allen is invigorating his campaign with fresh issues and themes, a new course that includes the surprising admission that his vote for the No Child Left Behind program to enhance the federal role in public education is ‘the one I would take back.’” [Human Events, 3/8/11]
Allen Criticized No Child Left Behind. According to Inside Nova: Allen called President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program a “big disappointment in the way it was implemented.” Allen said the program gave state bureaucrats and the federal Department of Education the freedom to “micro-manage” education. “The way that No Child Left Behind has been implemented is actually forcing us to dumb down our Virginia Standards of Learning,” he said. While Allen, who supported Standards of Learning to Virginia, said he agrees with measuring students’ progress, he doesn’t believe No Child Left Behind is the correct approach. “The problem with No Child Left Behind is that the measurements that they use on whether a school is failing or not are illogical,” he said. “Virginia and other states ought to get exempted from it. I trust the people in the states, and we proved it in Virginia, that we care more about our children than do unaccountable bureaucrats.” [Inside Nova, “ George Allen Visits News & Messenger,” 8/19/11]
Published: Jan 1, 2011