Mandating disaster.

• Author: Merrifield, John
• Position: Letters

Thomas Toch made some important points in his November article, "Bush's Big Test," but he missed the most important point of about 100 years of futile attempts to make the current K-12 governance and funding process produce even tolerable education outcomes, much less movement towards excellence. Did the frenzy of education mandates following Sputnik produce a better school system? No, quite the opposite. Did the 1983 "Nation at Risk" declaration and the ongoing reform frenzy that followed produce an excellent K-12 system in any state? No! A few months ago, another presidential commission...