Claire Tears into Talent AND "No Child Left Behind"

Claire McCaskill, the Democrat poised to unseat Jim Talent(less) Hack in November came out swinging on Thursday, attacking the administrations “No Child Left Behind” law, saying that it amounts to “many, many children left behind.”

“No Child Left Behind” (or, more accurately, no middle class white child left in public school) is an under-funded mandate, and a stone around the neck of a struggling education system. “The point is” said McCaskill in a telephone news conference “this is a very burdensome, bureaucratized program that is providing a mandate from Washington D.C., on a function of government that belongs with local control and belongs at the state level.” The law has been under funded by $43 billion since 2002. That is not a tab that the states can afford to pick up, especially a poor state like Missouri.

Claire is running to replace Jim Talent as Missouri’s junior senator. Her opponent has an absolutely abysmal record on education. Talent voted to eliminate the Department of Education when he was a member of the house, and has voted eight times against fully funding the law.

Talent was also the deciding vote that cut student financial aid by nearly $13 billion in 2005. If you live in Missouri and have kids in college, or that you would like to send to college in the future, a vote for Talent in November is a vote against your own flesh and blood.

Of course, when contacted by the Kansas City Star, and confronted with the miserable record that their guy has to run on, the Talent campaign refused to comment.

Big surprise.