Frank Luntz’s focus group’s opinions notwithstanding, I didn’t think that Gov. Romney’s answers on education were that great. I couldn’t have agreed more than when he said that there should be more local control of education. He lost me, however, when he talked about NCLB’s testing and accountability standards.

I’m curious how someone can say that they’re for local control of education and think that NCLB is a great system. NCLB is cumbersome at best. It puts tons of restrictions on states and local school districts. The burdens are so bad that many school districts are lobbying to reform NCLB.

What’s worse is this email I got this afternoon:

GOV. MITT ROMNEY: We’ve made the same effort in our state, actually before No Child Left Behind was passed. We test our kids. We have high standards. We teach them in English, English immersion. We say to be successful in America, you’ve got to speak the language of America. We also put in place incentives for kids to do well. For those that take the graduation exam, which you have to take to get out of high school, we say that you’re going to get, if you score in the top 25 percent of the test, a four-year tuition-free scholarship to a Massachusetts institution of higher learning. The federal government insists on those tests and those standards and it’s key. Let me continue: I think we also have to have higher pay for better teachers and people who are not good teachers ought to find a different career.

Talk about chutzpah. He’s taking credit for Massachusetts implementing NCLB before the bill was passed and signed into law. There’s just one problem with his taking credit for it: President Bush signed NCLB into law on January 8, 2002. Romney waws sworn in as governor in January, 2003.

Let’s summarize: Gov. Romney says he’s for local control of education only to admit that he’s a big fan of NCLB, which puts onerous mandates on local governments. Further, he’s tried taking credit for something that happened while he was campaigning for governor.

I’d call him a smooth operator but I certainly wouldn’t call him trustworthy.

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney, Education, NCLB, Unfunded Mandates, Local Control

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. NCLB: a jackass wannabee acronym for “No Child Learning Bureaucracy.”

   Comment by Carlos — December 13, 2007 @ 2:05 pm

2. Second comment: Obviously, Mitt was “for” education (local control) before he was “against” it (NCLB). Sound familiar? Straight out of the donkey playbook.

   Comment by Carlos — December 15, 2007 @ 11:09 am