The only thing NCLB had for conservatives was the national testing which caused the teacher’s (union mostly) to complain. Of course they will complain, the testing will, over time, uncover who are effective and who are not. The idea of finding some ineffective teachers and schools is what accountability is all about.
This program was sponsored IIRC by Kenedy and so it is likely to have a lot in it for the teacher’s union. Since the testing is the part the teachers do not like. (It forces us to teach to the test.) It stands to reason that the approach the democrats would take to unraveling it is to leave the funding provisions and eliminate the testing. This is profound in its absolute chutzpuh.
I teach the curriculum, and at my level, the students are supposed to be tested over whether they have mastered the curriculum. I don’t have a problem with that, and on the whole, my students do better on the test than the students who have the “easy A” teachers — which I think is what you are saying.
Now, if I get a bunch of students who have been socially promoted and aren’t reading or doing math at grade level, they aren’t going to do as well on the test, and I don’t think that is necessarily a reflection on my teaching; i.e., I think there ought to be some consideration of the abilities of the students as well, but on the whole, accountability is not a bad thing.
You are correct about the chutzpah.