No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Bush’s signature first term domestic accomplishment, is causing teachers with PhDs to leave the public schools rather than comply with NCLB’s mind-numbing certification requirements.

CATO’s Andrew Coulson’s objects to the neocons’ proposed solution to NCLB’s problems: destroy the few remaining vestiges of local control of eduction.

I agree with much of what Coulson says, with two caveats. First, while many conservatives’ support for national education policy is a relatively recent phenomenon (it was only 10 years ago that Bob Dole ran for President promising to eliminate the Education Department) the neocons have always supported federal control of education. The neocons only problem with the federal education bureaucracy was that they did not control it.

Secondly, Coulson seems to endorse a federally-funded voucher program, but isn’t this just as unconstitutional as NCLB? A better solution is education tax credits. Of course, state and local governments should be free to experiment with voucher programs without harassment from the federal government.