Dick Dalton, a special ed teacher and blogger, was encouraged when he started reading a recent Washington Post article about two congressional bills that would undercut NCLB.*  But then he kept reading and learned that states could "exempt any education program but special education" from NCLB.

Dalton's response, "So this means that special education still has to be shackled and cuffed to this leaky, stinky bureaucratic barge?" 

I spent a couple hours at a congressional hearing on NCLB last week and didn't hear any language as lively as that.  For that reason, if for no other, Congress should invite more teachers to testify about NCLB.

*The AFT opposes the bills and, for the record, doesn't think NCLB is a "leaky, stinky bureaucratic barge." After hearing from members who, like Dalton, are frustrated with the law, we've proposed these changes.