"No Child Left Behind" rebellion.

"From Utah to Virginia, a revolt is building in classrooms and legislatures against the biggest education reform in a quarter century," observed the February 11 Christian Science Monitor. "The rebellion, in some cases led by GOP lawmakers, could endanger a signature achievement of the Bush administration in an election year"--specifically, the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) education reform act, created by the Bush White House in consultation with ultra-leftist Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

NCLB is essentially "a morass of complex requirements on everything from who's tested to who can teach," continues the Monitor. "Schools can land on a watch list for something as simple as testing only 94 percent of students--or 94 percent of a subgroup, like non-English speakers. Many districts don't understand what they're trying to implement."

In Vermont and Connecticut, some districts "have refused federal funds rather than comply with all [NCLB] mandates," the Monitor reports. "A district in Pennsylvania is suing the state over what it sees as inequities in the law.... At least seven states have passed resolutions criticizing the law or asking for federal waivers on some requirements.... Maine is considering a bill--similar to one in Vermont--to prevent state funding of reforms."

In Utah, a measure calling for the state to opt out of the program entirely passed the state legislature's house education committee. However, as the Deseret Morning News pointed out on February 11, "Utah's shot across the bow at the No Child Left Behind Act went from that of a rifle to a pop gun" when the house passed a substitute measure preventing school districts from participating in NCLB "except where there is adequate federal funding." This revision, reported the Deseret Morning News on February 12, followed "a daylong meeting with Bush administration officials, who flew to Utah ... for some legislative arm-twisting."

The Republican-led Utah legislature found itself in a dilemma, political analyst Kelly Patterson told the Salt Lake Tribune. "This is one of those issues where there's a tension between what a party would like to do and what its ideological roots are," Patterson noted. "Local control. That's the rub. [President Bush] had to show national leadership, and that means treading on states."

What's truly remarkable about the anti-NCLB rebellion is this: In both conservative Utah and liberal Vermont, state legislatures are gagging on a grandiose social engineering program devised by a "conservative" Republican president, and passed by a "conservative" Republican-led Congress.