And the teachers replied, "NO KIDDING!"

Diane Ravitch, a former supporter of No Child Left Behind (or, as those of us in the trenches call it, No Teacher Left Standing), has changed her tune. Raising test scores leads to cheating and "gaming the system". As for treating schools like businesses:

"There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition," Ravitch says. "Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what's [been successful] for them. They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block."