Interversity.Org

The headline on CNN's website the past couple of days:

Bush: NCLB not meant to punish schools, but to help them

Er, I wonder. If punishment was not the intent, why is the law more punitive than supportive?

"It is important for all of us to make it clear that accountability is not a way to punish anybody," Bush told supporters of the law in a meeting at the White House. "It's an essential component to making sure that our system, our education system, frankly is not discriminatory."

It's like punching someone in the nose and then saying, I didn't want to hurt you. I just wanted to help you see my point of view.

But the punch hurts first and actually interferes with the message, just like NCLB punishes first and so distorts the goals of fairness and high quality education.

I think we're fortunate Mr. Bush has very little political clout left. I don't think he or his allies are going to have much to say about how NCLB gets revised. Their execution on all fronts has been so utterly incompetent that their intentions have been rendered irrelevant.