A Desperate Double Fail
You have to give Team Duncan credit for keeping at it with this whole reauthorization thing, whether you agree with them or not on the substance (NCLB is having a dire negative effect on public education) or the tactics (they're calling it a "flexibility package" but I call it a "recess reauthorization").
It's long been clear that Duncan could waive some of the NCLB provisions -- after all, he's been granting waivers to states all along. Blanket waivers would be something slightly new, but if they were limited to the most obvious elements -- the 2014 deadline for 100 percent proficiency, for example -- that'd be nothing to bat an eye at. Overdue reauthorizations aren't necessarily a big deal, either. It's not like the appropriators won't fund programs with expired authorizations. New strings? That's another matter.
Indeed, more than a week in and there's still pretty much no one (besides weasely state and district administrators) who will admit to liking Duncan's Plan B "recess reauthorization" -- though Patrick Eduflack Riccards comes
