Rename the No Child Left Behind Act? Don't be clever

ARNE Duncan, the new federal secretary of education, suggests that The No Child Left Behind Act be renamed. That's a fine idea, and not only for the reasons that resonate in Washington, D.C.

There the feeling is that the name, "No Child Left Behind," is too redolent of our earnest and fumbling former president, who was reading aloud to kids on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. More seriously, there is a thought that "no child left behind" is an impossible dream. Always some will be left behind. Educators try their best to minimize the number, but they cannot commit to zero.

When politicians paste ridiculous names on their creations, people laugh. Bush's law has been called the Teach to the Test Act, the Double Back Around to Pick Up the Children We Left Behind Act, and (with apologies to Lake Wobegon) the All American Children Are Above Average Act.

Marian Wright Edelman, whose Children's Defense Fund trademarked the slogan, "Leave No Child Behind," 15 years ago, now suggests the law be called the Quality Education for All Children Act. We would go further.

Let's stop giving bills propaganda names like "No Child Left Behind Act," the "PATRIOT Act," etc. Use names more like the original aid-to-schools bill, passed in the Johnson administration: Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

It was a name that made no fireworks and told no lies.