RUSH: Now, this is a fascinating story here in the Washington Post. As you know, the left is just targeting the No Child Left Behind Act. It’s gotta go. The unions don’t like it, nobody likes it. Unions are lobbying to reduce the 100% proficiency target. That’s what bothers everybody about this. “No Child Left Behind, the landmark federal education law, sets a lofty standard: that all students tested in reading and math will reach grade level by 2014. Even when the law was enacted five years ago, almost no one believed that standard was realistic. … Sen. Lamar Alexander said, ‘Are we going to rewrite the Declaration of Independence and say only 85 percent of men are created equal?” What’s happening is that, “Critics, including some teachers unions and many testing experts, view the law as a forced march toward an impossible education nirvana.”
Imagine liberals rejecting the whole concept of nirvana; rejecting the whole concept of a utopia! So they’re out there lobbying Congress to reduce this 100% target and delay the 2014 deadline. I’ll make a deal with them. I’ll be glad to make a deal. I’ll say, ‘Fair enough. So we can stop with this 100% healthcare coverage, then, for every child in America? If we’re not going to have utopia in the performance of children in schools, in education,’ which liberals, I mean their mantra is education — healthcare, education, health care — and how about ending poverty? Well, let’s eliminate the whole goal of 100% elimination of poverty. And how about this? Let’s eliminate this whole notion of a hundred percent carbon neutral footprints. You guys want to play a game, I’ll be glad to.
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RUSH: Frank in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, I have about a minute and ten seconds but I wanted to get to you since you’ve been holding.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. In what other industry do you have escalating costs and declining results? The ‘No Child Left Behind’ is an effort to go ahead and put some standards in place that we can all live up to, like the fuel economy standard. I think it’s a great movement that hopefully we’ll able to hang onto because our educators and usually our administration are against it. They call it an unfunded mandate, Rush.
RUSH: You’re right about all these escalating costs with declining results, which results in even more money demand. But isn’t it true that the teachers (and the teachers unions, I guess) really don’t like this because it requires standards for them, too?
CALLER: Right. Exactly. It’s like the fuel economy standard. We all want to get better fuel mileage. Don’t we all want a better education? We’re paying for it, Rush. Whether we’re getting it or not, the cost is there.
RUSH: Well, exactly. We all want hundred percent healthcare coverage for all the children of America. Let’s negotiate that down to 75%, and then let the libs choose the 25% that don’t get it.
CALLER: It’s a common mantra of educators and also the administrations of the ‘No Child Left Behind.’ When it first came out it was like screaming bloody murder. I think it’s somewhat subsided, but let’s not give in or give up. Let’s raise the standards.
RUSH: Thank you, Frank. I’ve gotta run because of the constraints of time.