Bill Clinton Blames Kennedy for No Child Left Behind Flaws

No Child Left Behind is a program set up by Former President George W. Bush the 43rd President of the United States.

**Actually, it was only signed by George W. Bush, but was drafted by Ted Kennedy.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT 

Feb 1, 2008

 ABC News’ Sarah Amos and Jennifer Parker Report: While stumping for his wife at an Arkansas high school Friday, former President Bill Clinton seemed to blame Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.,  along with President Bush for the failure of the No Child Left Behind Act to live up to its promises.

“The President made a deal with Senator Kennedy and neither one of them meant to mess it up,” Bill Clinton told a crowd of about 400 teachers and students in Texarkana.

“The deal was supposed to be, we will give the schools more money and get rid of two programs that Bill Clinton actually started — hiring more teachers in the early grades which actually does help performance and help schools with construction needs if they are overcrowded,” he said.

“And we will not put anymore money in the after school programs, which does help, and we will raise school performance by telling people their money depends on how their kids do on tests and we are going to give five tests five years in a row, and we will cut the states a check based on how they are doing. And then the law kind of winks at the state of Arkansas and says, ‘don’t worry about it too much because you get to pick the test and the passing score.’ Now think about that you get the worst of all worlds,” Clinton said.

Clinton mentioned Kennedy’s association with the No Child Left Behind Act – a federal education law unpopular with public school teachers — in the same week that the liberal icon passed over his wife to endorse her Democratic rival — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

g>The former president mentioned Kennedy yesterday while explaining his wife’s pledge to radically overhaul the education law. MORE

Ted Kennedy and No Child Left Behind

By William McKenzie/ Editorial Columnist

11:05 AM on Thu., Aug. 27, 2009

There’s probably not a better example of Ted Kennedy’s skills as a legislator than his work on No Child Left Behind, the law that Sen. Kennedy, Democratic Rep. George Miller, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg and GOP Rep. John Boehner  worked on with the Bush administration in 2001.

Recall the context of those times. President Bush had won reelection after the nightmarish Florida recount and Supreme Court decision and many Democrats wanted nothing to do with him. The president nevertheless extended his right hand to Democrats, and one who took it was the biggest Democrat of all, Ted Kennedy. He came to dinner with the Bushes, watched a movie at the White House and generally started to work with Bush on reforming federal education law.

Throughout 2001, while Bush was getting hammered by many Democrats for pursuing tax cuts, Kennedy kept working on a center-out strategy with the White House and the Hill on education reform. Through painstaking negotiations, the foursome worked with Bush domestic advisers Margaret Spellings and Sandy Kress on the legislation.

What I loved was the political approach of that bill: It didn’t start as conservatives trying to get liberals to sign on, or liberals trying to get conservatives to sign on. It instead started with both sides meeting in the middle and figuring out a way to produce a bill they both could support.

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