NCLB Waivers Will Have Strings Attached
Education Secretary Arne Duncan finally said this weekend what has been implied for months. To wit, he is prepared to issue waivers to states and districts from No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requirements if Congress is unable to make significant changes to the federal K-12 education law this year.
But the big news from the otherwise blindingly obvious development was that Duncan said such waivers would be granted in exchange for reforms aligned to the Obama administration’s priorities. Having used the carrot of billions of dollars in stimulus money to prompt state reforms through the Race to the Top grant competition, Duncan will now do the same through a relief for reform scheme.
Congress in general isn't happy about this plan: Senate HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) called it "premature," but Republicans are going to be even more displeased. Many of them consider the Race to the Top program a unilateral executive branch partial reauthorization of ESEA and this latest plan to institute their education vision through a regulatory quid pro quo is bound to draw even more scrutiny. Educators, too, surely didn't envision relief from NCLB's more onerous
