A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford No Child Left Behind has only been a failure if you believed the hype about its purposes. In fact, NCBL has been a roaring success in using “federal spending as a hammer to impose corporate governance over privatized public schools.” Wall Street has converted publicly-financed education into a no-risk market, teachers unions have been “demonized, demoralized and rendered largely politically inert,” and Black community control of schools is more remote than ever.
Ten Years of No Child Left Behind: Disaster Capitalism in the Schools A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford “In the space of a decade, No Child Left Behind has struck a mortal blow to American public education – just as intended.”
The Obama administration recently gave five more states waivers four out of five districts
It has been largely successful, thanks to the diabolical genius of American racism, which always assumed that the project was aimed at Black and brown communities. The general attitude in 2002 was: break up that blackboard jungle in the inner cities. By all means, experiment on them ! African American communities became the wedge through which could be inserted a corporate network of charter schools. Once the charter model reached critical mass in enough localities, President Obama unleashed an unrelenting wave of extortion and bribery that he called Race to the Top, forcing states to vastly expand the new market for charters. Thus reassured that taxpayer-financed education – a potential trillion dollar “market” – would become a Wild West for no-risk investment, Wall Street’s denizens jumped in the game with all four hooved feet.
“African American communities became the wedge through which could be inserted a corporate network of charter schools.”
In the space of a decade, No Child Left Behind has struck a mortal blow to American public education – just as intended. The teachers unions have been demonized, demoralized and rendered largely politically inert – which has always been at the top of the corporate wish-list. This goal was achieved under a Democratic president, whom the teachers unions nevertheless endorsed with unseemly haste, even though Obama has been more effective in their evisceration than his Republican predecessor. The teaching profession, itself, has been degraded, possibly beyond repair.
Black America, which was so callously transformed into the core market for privatized schooling, has been systematically deprived of any avenues for community control of schools, which can never coexist with the corporate structures of charterization. Black teachers have been decimated in city after city, further weakening the social fiber of their communities.
So, it is a mistake to conclude that No Child Left Behind has failed in its actual purposes. Although it may appear that President Obama’s waiver policies are disarming the program, piece by piece, the bomb has already exploded. Disaster capitalism is now deeply entrenched in U.S. public education.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
The Axis of Resistance has forged a path of self-sufficiency that turned Iran into a power capable of challenging U.S. and zionist power.
Black youth fed xenophobia instead of international solidarity become military pawns who risk their own lives and their people's liberation.
Gulf states like Qatar and the UAE have built a system where migrant workers perform the productive labor while being stripped of their legal and human rights.
St. Vincent legalized medicinal cannabis in 2018, but the industry cannot take off while US warships enforce a blockade. A nation cannot build a legal economy under military threat.
“Cuba en la encrucijada de un multilateralismo hipócrita,” by Josué Veloz Serrade, appeared on La Tizza on 17 March 2026.
