When No Child Left Behind was signed into law 2001, lawmakers knew that mandating 100 percent student proficiency in math and reading by 2014 was unrealistic. But they assumed that by 2009, at the latest, Congress would reform and reauthorize the law and in the process adjust some of its unfeasible mandates.

Now it’s 2011, and Congress has yet to update NCLB. This failure means that 80 percent of Americans schools will be designated as “failing” when school begins in a few weeks. On MSNBC, Dana Goldstein says that Congress has been unable to pass NCLB reform because the Tea Party has eroded the decade long bipartisan consensus on education policy. For more from Goldstein and education reform, read her recent post, “Matt Damon, Arne Duncan and the Divisive Teacher-Quality Debate.”

—Kevin Donohoe