[pnh102]

But "The single worst thing to happen to public schooling in recent memory..."

How is my statement wrong? NCLB is simply the latest problem with public education. Teachers unions, liberal indoctrination and other such things had been going on since long before NCLB. Hence, when NCLB came around, it became the single worst thing to happen to public schooling in recent memory.

[Tennessean4Bush]

How is my statement wrong?

The hyperbole keeps the focus off the more important, debilitating problems. Further, it makes you sound shrill and makes people (IMHO) not want to read another word. I'll put it this way: let's take your second list, combine it with "the single, worst thing to happen in recent memory", and add a couple others I have seen complaints about.

• Teachers unions
• Liberal indoctrination
• Rise of the single-parent household
• Lack of enforceable classroom discipline
• Lack of parental involvement
• Lack of local control
• Mega school trend versus the small neighborhood school
• NCLB

Now, if I gave you a magic wand and said you can change, wipe away, or drastically reform any three but no more than three, would NCLB make your cut?

While NCLB may be bad, it probably would not make many serious reformers top 10, much less top 5. Technically, it may have followed these others chronologically, but calling it "single" and "worst" is hyperbole. If I had not called you on it, your second, more measured post would probably not been written.

[af_vet_rr]

Hence, when NCLB came around, it became the single worst thing to happen to public schooling in recent memory.

Anytime the federal government tries to muscle in on local matters, it becomes the "single worst thing to happen to such-and-such in recent memory". I'm still amazed that so many Republicans thought that expanding the federal government's role in local matters was a good thing.