I spent yesterday afternoon on Capitol Hill and it confirmed what I already suspected: Washington is in complete paralysis around the No Child Left Behind act.
Republicans are commencing their stampede away from the law, particularly in the House, now that moderate Republicans have been all but eviscerated. Consider the new GOP Members of the House education committee, for example. Here's what Representative Tom McClintock has to say about the federal role in education:
Returning control and decision making power to our local communities and families regarding our children's education is crucial in making our education system work again. It is not the federal government's role to force every school district into a predetermined one-size fits all formula.
The federal government has no business poking its nose into our local schools, telling parents and teachers what is best for our kids. Our public schools suffer from too much bureaucracy that eats up resources. We need more resources in the classroom, where they will do the most good.
These are not Margaret Spellings Republicans, to say the least.
Meanwhile, a sizable chunk of the Democratic caucus is owned by the National Education Association, and will only vote for an NCLB update if the law's accountability provisions are watered down. So where does this leave Chairmen Kennedy and Miller, and the incoming Obama Administration? Up a creek, if they want to push through an NCLB that looks anything like the current law, as the votes in the center simply aren't there. Which is why they won't touch reauthorization anytime soon (best case scenario is now 2011!) and why we get to enjoy NCLB-as-is for several more years to come.
