Opinion: South Dakota Editorial Roundup

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education initiative has been debated hotly since its passage six years ago. Regrettably, debates focus on some of the faults of NCLB, of which there are some, rather than on the framework and overall goals of the program. Even worse, the debate includes the worst of partisan politics, with Democrats on one side and Republicans on another. NCLB’s critics say that compliance is expensive, that paperwork is excessive, that it reduces local control and that it doesn’t take into account circumstances unique to certain locales. There may be some merit to these, but if there are problems, let’s fix them rather than throwing out the goals.