I'm not a regular Time reader, so I came across a Feb. 1 interview of Sen. Hillary Clinton just today, by chance.  It included this interesting Q&A. 

TIME: What surprised you about this first trip to Iowa? Is there anything you want to do differently the next time you go out?

CLINTON: I was really excited by the intensity of feelings that I encountered in all of the events, large and small, and the energy that people brought to the events they came to. People were really geared up. It felt more like a week before an election than a year before an election. There was that much emotion and intensity and energy. I was delighted with the whole weekend. I though it went extremely well, thanks to all the hard work that everybody put into it, and I was pleased that I got to go to so many different places, and not just stay in one place, and obviously, I'll go to many more when I go back over the succeeding months.

One thing that surprised me were the number of questions I got about No Child Left Behind. I know that's a problem for people, but this was more intense than I had expected.

Maybe meetings with constituents (and voters) will make legislators (and candidates) approach  reauthorization of the law with an eye to getting it right instead of just rubber-stamping it. Or  legislators and candidates could just read USA Today.  

Writing on NCLB's fifth anniversary, Greg Toppo had this to say:

Here's a pretty safe rule of thumb: Start in the classroom and travel up the educational food chain. The further you travel, the more you'll find that people like the law. Mention it to most teachers and they'll just roll their eyes. Many principals tolerate it. Ask a local superintendent, a state superintendent or a governor and the assessment gets rosier as their suit gets more expensive.

Members of Congress need to acknowledge the fundamental flaws in the current version of the law before they set out reauthorizing it.  Hey, that early Iowa primary could turn out to be good thing.