What’s In A Word?

Sara already wrote about this new Ed Next poll. What jumped out at me is how much language matters. If you ask people about a generic law that does what No Child Left Behind does they are more favorably disposed to it than if you ask them about “No Child Left Behind” specifically. This is not unlike the word “vouchers,” which polls worse than generic descriptions of school choice schemes. In the case of No Child, some of that has to be the association of the law with the Bush Administration. It’s no secret that the President is not all that popular just now and it’s well documented that people infer conclusions from associations like that.

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