The Hill News

In his annual Back to School Speech on Wednesday, President Obama said that he took an ethics class in the eighth grade, learning about right and wrong. The President admitted ethics was not his favorite subject in school, basketball was. Perhaps the President should have paid more attention in his ethics class instead of on his game. Because while the President has claimed a desire to work with Congress to fix the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, he has in reality tried to circumvent Congress, alleging an inability to reach consensus on a broad plan.

In direct contradiction to what the President has claimed, House and Senate Republicans are the only ones who have actually produced legislative work to fix NCLB. The Obama administration and Secretary Duncan have claimed a desire to work with Congress but have little to show for it. The best they could do was to “borrow” language used by Republicans, calling his recently released waivers plan, a “flexibility” ! plan.

The President released his waivers plan last week, saying he wants to relieve states from the NCLB requirements for students to be 100 percent proficient in math and reading by 2014, but only if they adopt his requirements in exchange. The euphemistically labeled executive action is actually coercive administrative legislating.

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