Clinton’s education bill was the Education Reform Act of 1993. Just like Bush 43’s education bill is the No Child Left Behind Act. Just about every president has an education bill just like they write a budget, a crime bill and a foreign policy.
NCLB was just an expansion of Clinton’s original plans to be honest. Clinton’s plan mandated that students be able to use calculators on the exam, NCLB mandated that students HAVE to use a calculator on the exam. Clinton’s plan mandated that children be taught division with a calculator. NCLB mandated that students can only be taught division with a calculator. Clinton’s plan mandated that special needs children be taught anonymously in the classroom with regular children (so they won’t get hurt feelings or something) NCLB mandated that they be taught in the same classroom, but that a second instructor (Special Ed certified) also teach with the regular instructor as well.
You can pretty much go line by line (though they are in different orders) and see how the 93 education bill is just a weak version of NCLB. But that is hardly surprising, considering who actually WROTE the NCLB act. (Just because you sign it does not mean you wrote it. There’s a hint.)
As for what NCLB did do well, it, uhm….it required teachers to take a professionalism exam in order to retain certification. Uh…oh yea, it made it much easier to fire a teacher and for a government to take over the administration of schools. Not sure what else it succeeded at doing to be honest.