Myth: The No Child Left Behind Act was passed as part of a plot to completely undermine confidence in public education and funnel all children into private schools by way of voucher programs.

This has become part of the folklore around No Child Left Behind and can be read on countless blogs as well as in books and articles. For example, Gerald Bracey, who until recently was an associate professor at George Mason University, wrote in his book, Seven Deadly Sins of No Child Left Behind, “NCLB has always been yet another Bush administration Orwellian Double Speak program. It aims to increase the use of vouchers, increase the privatization of public schools, reduce the size of the public sector, and weaken or destroy the teachers unions.”
Aside from simply dismissing or laughing at the idea that Democrats like Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) and Rep. George Miller (D-California), who helped author No Child Left Behind, intended to dismantle public education and destroy the teachers unions, it is difficult to offer uncontestable proof about other people’s intentions.
But this can be said: At a September 20 Business Roundtable discussion of No Child Left Behind held in Washington, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), said that, as he looked toward the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, vouchers are “dead.”
“We can talk about vouchers, but politically, that’s a dead issue,” Education Week quoted him as saying.