Public School Shakedown: right on the banks, wrong on education.

• Author: Bryant, Jeff
• Position: Projects - Brief article

Heartened by the bold leadership of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and the huge crowds cheering presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, progressives can truly feel they are driving the national debate.

So it's beyond disappointing when progressive leaders who knock an argument for economic populism out of the park continue to whiff on education populism.

Currently, the House and Senate are rewriting No Child Left Behind--the federal law that started enforced testing and harsh punishments in public schools. An amendment proposed by Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, would have kept the federal government in charge of defining what is a "failing school." The amendment was voted down, but most Democratic Senators, including Warren and Sanders, voted for it.

Supporters of public schools were outraged. "Democrats pushed to restore a punitive accountability system, much like NCLB," education historian Diane Ravitch wrote on her blog, calling the vote, "evidence of how little Congress knows about education."

Why are progressive leaders in the Democratic Party out of...