The Hill News

Former President George W. Bush defended his signature No Child Left Behind education legislation and said that critics of the law "don't like to be held to account," in a rare political interview published Thursday by Time Magazine.

Bush argued that conservative criticism of the program, now ten years old, was ill-informed, and that NCLB improved government efficiency.

"In some circles, punching No Child Left Behind is a way to basically say, I’m against Big Government. In fact, No Child Left Behind is a way to promote efficient government. No Child Left Behind basically says, If you’re going to fund [schools], like we’ve been doing for years, we in the federal government ought to demand accountability, which seems to me a very conservative principle," Bush said. "Yet some conservatives are saying No Child Left Behind is an improper role for federal government. In that case, it’s more philosophy than actual analysis of how No Child Left Behind works and its effectiveness."  

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