Schoolhouse of Cards

As the Obama Administration wrestles with the impending reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the continuing need for education reform, Eugene Hickok provides an insider's account of this historic legislation. A former key player in the Department of Education during the Bush administration, Hickok describes how Bush's education agenda took shape during the campaign and his first year in office, how it achieved bipartisan support in Congress, and how it was implemented. Hickok believes that NCLB accomplished a few things but not enough and had flaws. In addition, he reveals that the tensions among individuals in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and within the Department of Education undermined the law's implementation. In a final chapter Hickok criticizes reform efforts by Presidents Bush and Obama as nipping at the margins, calling instead for a radical rethinking of public education in America. NCLB represented a milestone on the road to fundamental reform needed in American education but Hickok calls for far more transformative and imaginary change.