Five More Years: Of What Exactly?
by Frederick M. Hess • Jan 30, 2012 at 7:52 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareHidy all, I'm back. Lots of excitement while I was away, including the bizarre GOP primary season and the President's SOTU speech.
For what it's worth, I thought the SOTU's seven-minute education section was embarrassing. The President could've said that NCLB waivers are a poor substitute for legislation, and signaled his eagerness to get a deal done. He could've said that dollars are tight and that states need to live up to their Race to the Top (RTT) promises or the feds will yank our money back. He could've echoed his Secretary of Education's observation that we live in a "new normal," where it's less about spending more than it is about getting more bang from each buck. He could've been classy and congratulated governors for the bold reforms enacted last year in states like Indiana and Ohio.
Instead, he vapidly, vaguely gave marching orders to the states (raise the compulsory education age, spend