Thursday, November 4, 2010

Grijalva Vows To Defend Public Education From White House-GOP Alliance

Grijalva Vows To Defend Public Education From White House-GOP Alliance

Grijalva Vows To Defend Public Education From White House-GOP Alliance

First Posted: 11- 4-10 10:32 AM | Updated: 11- 4-10 11:43 AM

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Grijalva

WASHINGTON -- A key element of President Obama's post-midterm agenda is already coming under fire from House progressives worried that the president will attempt to rehabilitate himself with a triangulation strategy modeled after President Clinton's gutting of welfare in 1996.

On Thursday morning, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was asked on the radio program Democracy Now! whether it was his sense that Obama hopes to make education his welfare reform.

"That's my sense and also my concern, to be quite honest," said Grijalva, who narrowly won reelection in his Tucson-based district. "We had an opportunity to reauthorize elementary and secondary education. We didn't do that. Now we go back to a session in which the Republicans are going to control the Education and Labor Committee, of which I'm a member."

Grijalva said that large parts of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's education efforts had already been rejected by Democrats. "Arne Duncan's four prescriptions for fixing public schools, which were essentially to privatize, close them... we rejected them as a caucus on that committee," Grijalva said.

Grijalva's opposition, however, could galvanize Obama if he decides that voters were telling him to