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Banality, Mendacity, and Vacuity
"No child left behind" is the very acme of American political rhetoric, a perfect encapsulation of who we are as a culture.

First of all, it is trivial: The reason people keep saying it incessantly is because no one could possibly disagree with the sentiment it expresses.
Second, it is false. No matter whose education plan is passed, many children will be left behind, and perhaps I may be excused for noticing that a lot of them will be black and poor.
No party has the will or the way to educate every child effectively; that's reality. For one thing, people are, thank God, in part responsible for their own education and the education of their children.
Third, in the mouths of the people who mutter it, "no child left behind" is meaningless. It is something that emerges when the brain ceases to function entirely, when the politician is thinking about something important (like a good alibi) and intends to let his mouth keep going without him.
Thus "no child left behind," in its epiphanic synthesis of banality, mendacity and vacuity, crystallizes in a single phrase who we are as a people: our deepest beliefs and our deepest public commitments. . .

— Crispin Sartwell
Politically Speaking, It's Greasy Kid Stuff
Los Angeles Times
June 26, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-000044659jun26.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dcomment%2Dopinions

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