Earlier this week, the writers of an op-ed in the Washington Post tried to convince the reader that Congress should reauthorize No Child Left Behind. But the short piece is full of crap from top to bottom, starting with the title pleading not to “undo” the nation’s education progress.

Their rationale for supporting NCLB is all about standardized testing, of course. With three specific suggestions that boil down to 1) collect data, 2) publish data, 3) use data to beat up on schools and teachers.

They finish the column the way they started, with a boat full of red herrings.

As a nation, we must ask ourselves if we are committed to the success of every child. Are we going to bow to the special interests of adults, or will we stand strong for the special interest that has no lobby – our children? We have made great progress for millions of kids since NCLB. Let’s not return to a time when these students were left in the shadows.

I have no idea what these guys mean by “great progress”. The legacy of NCLB has been a narrowing of the school curriculum as schools spent an increasing amount of time on preparing for the high stakes tests.

I certainly don’t understand their accusatory “special interest of adults”. Especially since one major result of NCLB has been the enrichment of the adult investors in the companies that market the required testing infrastructure.