DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton: 'What I object to with No Child Left Behind is not that they want to have some measurement, because measurements are important. You can't not measure whether people are learning. That's got to be done. But what I object to is this idea that there is this standard of so-called proficiency, and that it doesn't matter how much improvement a child, a class or a school makes; if you don't get this measure, then you're a failure.'

John Edwards: 'The law today judges children based on cheap standardized tests, forces schools to narrow the curriculum, fails to accurately identify struggling schools and imposes unproven cookie-cutter reforms.' Edwards supports better tests, broader measures of school success such as measuring students' progress, and giving states more resources and flexibility to identify and reform under performing schools.

Mike Gravel: 'No Child Left Behind has left too many children behind. It needs to be reformed and adequately funded. It needs to acknowledge the need for a fuller curriculum that encourages critical thinking --not just math and science test-taking. A high school diploma should be the minimum goal for all students; without it, our children will be condemned to a substandard economic existence.'

Dennis Kucinich: No position available.

Bill Richardson: 'At first, I thought we could fix No Child Left Behind -- but now it is clear that we can't, and that our students are suffering under this failed policy. It is imperative that the next president makes sure that states receive appropriate funding and are no longer forced to accept a one-size-fits-all program that punishes schools rather than providing them with the tools they need to succeed.'

Barack Obama: 'The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.'

REPUBLICANS

Mike Huckabee: 'We need a clear distinction between federal and state roles in education. While there is value in the No Child Left Behind law's effort to set high standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.'

Duncan Hunter: 'Students and teachers must be empowered to reach their maximum potential, and NCLB has put us back on track towards achieving better results in the classroom. As Congress considers reauthorizing NCLB, it is important that we continue building on this success and address any challenges that may be preventing students and teachers from reaching their full potential.'

Alan Keyes: No position available.

Rudy Giuliani: 'It seems to me the thing that's wrong right at the core of No Child Left Behind, the enforcer of standards should not be the bureaucrat in Washington or on the board of education. It should be the parent. We should have choice. We should empower parents. They should decide: private school, parochial school, public school, charter school, home school. That will give the parents the kind of control over their children's education -- they understand their children better. Why should a government bureaucrat be sending 168,000 children to failing schools when parents think they can do better for their children?'

John McCain: 'No Child Left Behind — everybody likes to criticize it. It needs to be fixed, but it was a great beginning. It was a great way of gauging performance.'

Fred Thompson: 'That's something I voted for that I don't think has worked out very well. One of the reasons is that states are setting their own standards, and the better their students do, the more easily the federal money flows to them. So remarkably, all the students are doing very well, thank you.'

Ron Paul: 'The teachers don't like it. The students don't like it. And the quality of education hasn't gone up. The cost of education has gone up.'

Mitt Romney: ‘I know a lot of people aren't wild about No Child Left Behind. But I like the fact that we test our kids so we can tell which schools are good and which are not. I like state control of the process, but I do like testing.' Romney would give states that meet or exceed testing requirements additional flexibility in measuring student performance.

Sources: AASA and official candidate websites, published articles, campaign speeches.