If the No Child Left Behind law's prescription for "highly qualified" teachers had worked out the way it appears on paper, states would have gotten a good look at how far they had to go as far back as 2003. Then, as envisioned by Congress' 2001 overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, they would have marched steadily…

Widespread sniping at the Bush administration's centerpiece education law escalated into a frontal attack as the nation's largest teachers' union. Several school districts sued federal officials over the measure, just a day after the Utah legislature approved a bill challenging the reach of the law. The National Education Association's suit…