Who Is Cheating Whom?

A big deal is being made out of the case in which several Atlanta teachers and administrators were convicted of cheating on standardized tests. Every one agrees that what these people did is wrong, but the question that is being missed is whether educational policy is being honestly addressed or is just being used as a political football. When GWB's grandiosely named No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was passed it among other things demanded more standards and testing in return for higher funding. The higher funding level have never been provided but the insistence of more standardized testing has been maintained. The only beneficiaries have been the standardized testing corporations. Has this really improved the quality of education? Or just another case of corporations profiting at public expense?