Two GOP Candidates Criticize NCLB in Debate

This from Politics K-12:

Last night, the Republicans held a debate in Iowa, sponsored by Fox News and the Washington Examiner. Education came up five minutes from the end of the two-hour debate. Two candidates were asked if—as president— they would continue to enforce the No Child Left Behind Act.

The answer was an emphatic "no", at least from Jon Huntsman, a businessman and former governor of Utah, and Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza. (Other candidates didn't get a crack at the question.)

"No Child Left Behind hasn't worked for this country," Huntsman said. He'd like to see more school choice and expanded use of technology in classrooms.

Cain said he believed that education is a local issue. "The federal government should get out of the business of trying to micromanage the education of our children," he said.

Absent from the debate was recently-announced candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry who has said the federal government needs to stop "dictating" school policy and limit spending in his speech to the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Perry outlined a sharply contrasting vision from that of the Bush and Obama administrations on the federal role in creating jobs and spurring innovation during a bleak economic period. "Government doesn't create jobs, otherwise the last two and a half years of stimulus would have worked," Perry told lawmakers, adding that "no government program, however well-intentioned," can put a sufficient charge into a lagging economy.