Mother Jones Endorses Unrealistic Goals For Children

Countless times, educators and journalists have pointed out that it's impossible for all children to be proficient by 2014 as required under NCLB. To them, that means the law is a joke.

But apparently goal-setting -- even nearly impossible goals -- has a beneficial effect. Who says so? None other than Mother Jones.

In a post titled How Britain Reduced Child Poverty, Bradford Plumer links to a Washington Post piece about how Britain has reduced child poverty by 17 percent over the past five years in some part due to having set the elimination of child poverty as a goal.

"What if you don't end child poverty by the targeted date of 2020, we asked. The question didn't really interest them. The target, they argued, focused the minds of the politicians, the agencies and the public. Without it, they would never have gotten as far as they have."