Derb writes, “NCLB’s entire effect has…been to increase the general level of dishonesty in our education system,” and I now have dozens and dozens of emails supporting just that contention. But surely we have to grant that NCLB has had two additional effects, to wit: a) It has increased federal funding for public schools by many, many billions of dollars a year, a sum that can only grow still higher, and, b) it has introduced a massive federal presence into what used to be almost exclusively a state and local matter, eroding one of the few remaining redoubts of true federalism.

Essay question: Which of Bush’s domestic “achievements,” NCLB or the prescription drug benefit, will have done more harm a decade from now?