So why even pass NCLB?

I’m not sure why national lawmakers place “burdens” on the states then decide later which states get to have the burden removed.  If it was a good mandate, then it should apply to all the states.  If it’s a bad mandate, then it shouldn’t get passed.  If it’s good for some states and not for others, then the federal government shouldn’t pass the law but rather allow each state to decide if it’s good for it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned.

The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the states had not yet been announced. A total of 28 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signaled that they, too, plan to seek waivers — a sign of just how vast the law’s burdens have become as a big deadline nears.

This points to a flaw in the system.  When 76% of the states want out of the NCLB requirements, it makes you wonder how it got passed in the first place.  Then you compare the ways senators are elected and the reason becomes abundantly clear.

Voters have elected their senators in the privacy of the voting booth since 1913. The framers of the Constitution, however, did not intend senators to be elected in this way, and included in Article I, section 3, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.” The election of delegates to the Constitutional Convention established the precedent for state selection.

The propaganda following this excerpt aside, one of the original purposes of the senate was to provide the states a protection against the federal government infringing upon their rights.  Today it is merely a second House of democracy, meaning the states no longer have that protection.  Many voters are so short-sighted that they will elect politicians who will do things on a national level which ends up hurting people on a more local level.  The protection from this short-sightedness is the election of people who are concerned first and foremost with more local matters to the national government.  The founding fathers had this government thing figured out pretty well.

Anyway, here’s some cartoons about NCLB.  Enjoy.