"The damn law is ludicrous" -- Republican James H. Dillard II, Virginia House of Delegates Education Committee Chairman, after the VA House passed a resolution, 98-1, which called for the US Congress to exempt VA from NCLB, and describes NCLB as "the most sweeping intrusions into state and local control of education in the history of the United States." More NCLB commentary here.

...especially if the underlying goal to show how public schools are failing in order to promote vouchers is not changed.

I'm not sure that is the underlying goal and not merely a corollary one. After reading Ivins's detailed chapter on No Child Left Behind in Bushwhacked, I'm convinced that the primary goal was the Bush administration's seizing power over public schools. The punishment for a particular school's failing the standard tests isn't merely that they're robbed of money; they can fire principals and teachers and force changes in the curriculum. (q.v. Ivins: "In February 2003 the Department of Education sent out a warning that if schools did not allow students time for 'constitutionally protected prayer'[*], they could lose their federal aid for the poor.") Giving money to private schools--vouchers, by name or not--is, in comparison to that seizure of power, mere gravy.

[*] Classroom time? Or (say) ten minutes tacked on to lunch break when students can spend as they like, praying if they wanted to or reading in the library or playing stud poker instead? I'm not familiar with this debate.

Hopefully voters who are parents will recognize that this administration has de-funded schools, and made impossible demands (most recently, via No Child Left Behind) that make education increasingly difficult.

Thanks to the un-funded No Child Left Behind, as well as State-required funding restrictions, our award-winning local schools:
*spend 11 days a year testing students (that's time that can't be used for education)
*are required to provice education for special needs students (which is appropriate), but get funded for less than 2/3 of those costs
*require half time of a senior administrator, just to maintain the paperwork that NCLB requires
*have drastically reduced funding for basic services, and no funding for elective classes
*have no funding for our literature-based curriculum (eg, novels taught in the classroom), but will fund text books with excerpts from novels.

We must remember in November.

Wonderful big picture view.