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Presidential Candidate Bachmann: Foster Mom, NCLB Foe

By Alyson Klein — June 16, 2011 1 min read
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So I’m sure you political junkies are all aware by now that Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is running for president.

Bachmann, who heads up the House of Representatives tea party caucus, doesn’t have a long and extensive record on education. But if you watched Monday’s debate, you probably know that Bachmann and her husband have raised 23 (!) foster kids. And children in foster care have been a major legislative focus for her.

She sponsored a bill, for instance, that would expand school choice options for foster kids, who often have a transient, disrupted education.

On her congressional website, she calls the No Child Left Behind Act “well-intentioned” but says that it has caused schools to focus on “teaching to the test.” And she sees it as “a one-size-fits-all approach to learning that does not work well for every student.”

Bachmann is a co-sponsor of the A-plus Act, which would allow states to opt of out NCLB’s accountability requirements and instead use their own systems for measuring schools’ progress.

UPDATE: Kudos to the eagle-eyed Mike Petrilli of the excellent edublog Flypaper for unearthing this story about a charter school Bachmann ran in Minnesota. Apparently, it got shut down because it was too religious.

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