Everitt’s Legacy Overshadowed by No Child Left Behind

As a product of Albuquerque Public Schools, I feel strongly attached to its fortunes and misfortunes. As of Monday, superintendent Elizabeth Everitt announced her refusal to renew her contract next year. She leaves her office as a controversial figure.
Whatever achievements Everitt did or did not accomplish, her tenure is tainted by the effects of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. We can criticize her all we want, but she could accomplish little in the face of such overwhelming and stifling regulation. The system created by this act “impedes learning, encourages dropouts, narrows the curriculum, increases anxiety, fosters academic dishonesty, and does nothing to improve schools,” and Everitt could do nothing to change this.
We all know that APS has plenty of problems. Yet we must also realize that we can never address those problems until we can define our own educational system, free from No Child Left Behind and other strangling federal regulations.