Theories of the Central Planner

The Economic Policy Institute reports on the utter failure of Central Planning:

Diane Ravitch says that was the logic that initially led her to support the policies of No Child Left Behind, requiring all public schools to measure student performance through standardized tests.

In the eight years since the act took effect, however, Ravitch said she has come to understand that the policies and the punitive measures put in place for schools failing to meet proficiency requirements were as unrealistic as requiring all cities to become crime-free by a target date, and then shutting down police departments that failed to achieve that impossible goal.

Ravitch, an education historian and former Assistant Secretary of Education in the George H.W. Bush administration, explains in her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, how her thoughts on testing, school choice, and teacher accountability evolved. On March 15, she spoke on a panel at EPI, How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, about the damage that has resulted from a heavy focus on standardized tests.

Translation: Invest tens of billions in bad education planning so I can right a book. Never mind that Central Planning rarely works, that part is not in the book!