Nobody Could Have Predicted

This is a complete and utter surprise:

The number of schools labeled as "failing" under the nation's No Child Left Behind Act could skyrocket dramatically this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.

The Department of Education estimates the percentage of schools not meeting yearly targets for their students' proficiency in in math and reading could jump from 37 to 82 percent as states raise standards in attempts to satisfy the law's mandates.

The 2002 law requires states to set targets aimed at having all students proficient in math and reading by 2014, a standard now viewed as wildly unrealistic.

"No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now," Duncan said in a statement. "This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed."

So the policy of punishing "failing" schools chugged merrily along as long as it mostly affected poor schools and districts. But who knew that "all students" meant 100% of all students in every school in America? If only somebody could have warned us that achieving this by 2014 was an unworkable goal.

Next thing you know people will be claiming there's waste and fraud in the Pentagon budget.