CNN.com - Harvard study blasts Bush education policy - Feb 16, 2006: "In one example the study cites, states in rural Midwestern regions were granted extensions on deadlines to meet requirements on teacher qualifications that were unavailable to poorer rural regions with greater numbers of black Americans and ethnic minorities in southeast and southwest states.

'The policy is essentially a product of negotiation, of power and discretion, not law,' Gary Orfield, director of Harvard's Civil Rights Project, said in the report.

Chad Colby, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, called Harvard's study 'misinformed' and 'flawed'. 'We leave it up to the states to determine how they are going to get there. It's exactly the opposite of one-size-fits-all.'"