George F. Will tears into No Child Left Behind and state (as well as federal) politicians in a recent column that is loaded with tart commentary.

Here's the first paragraph:

No Child Left Behind, supposedly an antidote to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," has instead spawned lowered standards. The law will eventually be reauthorized because doubling down on losing bets is what Washington does. But because NCLB contains incentives for perverse behavior, reauthorization should include legislation empowering states to ignore it.

The rest of the column discusses a recent report about the games states play with proficiency standards. It also is a reminder of the attachment that some conservatives have to government-run schools:

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Republican who represents western Michigan's culturally cohesive Dutch Calvinist communities, opposed NCLB from the start because he thought it would "tear apart the bond between the schools and the local communities."

Will doesn't say whether these bonds are useful or good, so I'll say it: the value of schools in "building community" is overrated, and underestimates the value of truly voluntary associations.