Sec. Duncan Seems to Regard Constitution as so Much Tissue on Bottom of His Shoe
by Frederick M. Hess • Jun 13, 2011 at 8:26 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareOur earnest Secretary of Education, who famously (and bizarrely) promised Congress a billion-dollar edu-bonus if it reauthorized NCLB by the administration's deadline and to the President's satisfaction, was back at it on Friday. Exhibiting the administration's patented disinterest in the niceties of the U.S. Constitution, he announced that he's getting ready to waive NCLB requirements for states if they agree, as the New York Timesput it, "to embrace President Obama's education priorities, a formula the administration used last year in its signature education initiative, the Race to the Top grant competition."
Ed Week's Michele McNeil observed, "Any new flexibility would come with strings attached, as states would be asked 'for courage and for reform.'" Duncan highlighted labor-management collaboration, laws that establish new teaching standards, and "the next generation of assessments" as the kinds of things he'd insist upon. McNeil reported, "Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for Mr. Duncan, said that unlike the Race to the Top, which allowed states to devise their own education improvement plans, the department would present states with a
