How the executive branch is reshaping education ― with little debate
WASHINGTON ― In December, the application from the State of California for a waiver from the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was denied by the U.S. Department of Education. This, we were told, was because California disagreed with some items on the Department's reform agenda—especially those having to do with teacher quality—and did not include them in its application. State officials said that it would have cost them $2 billion to implement these unwanted features of questionable effectiveness. What’s going on here? The American education system is being reshaped before our very own eyes in a truly fundamental way―and with little debate. National and state policymakers behave as if both levels of government have much the same roles in education: to set goals and standards, for example, and to create accountability systems, define teacher quality, determine strategies for producing quality teachers and improve the performance of low-performing schools. Left unresolved, the conflicts this creates are likely to deepen and worsen over time. It has not always been this way. Historically, the federal government’s role had been to aid, assist, prod and push the schools, districts and states. But the key word was always “aid.” From the 1950s to the 1990s, there was no question