Former Reagan official links Atlanta cheating scandal to higher taxes, defense cuts

Former budget director David Stockton says that a "huge cultural problem" concerning defense cuts and higher taxes is linked to a massive alleged conspiracy to cheat on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools.

Last week, former Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall was among 35 educators who were indicted for conspiring to rig standardized test scores between 2005 and 2009.

During a Sunday panel on ABC News, conservative columnist George Will pointed to the No Child Left Behind law passed under President George W. Bush and said that it had been a mistake to tie teacher pay to student test scores.

"We've put in all kinds of perverse incentives all linked to standardized testing," Will explained.

"Cheating is symptomatic of a huge cultural problem we have," Stockton opined. "The cheating that's going on in Washington today, in terms of not being honest about the real choices: higher taxes for you, Social Security cuts for the affluent, big declines in defense not there. The cheating that's going on in terms of the financial system that's totally out of kilter and really needs to be fixed in Wall Street is not even being addressed."

"So, that is symptomatic of a huge national problem."

As Reagan's budget director from 1981 to 1985, Stockman helped pushed through massive tax cuts under the theory that wealth would "trickle down" from richer Americans.

Watch this video from ABC's This Week, broadcast April 7, 2013.