A Shameless Display on Waivers
by Frederick M. Hess • Feb 10, 2012 at 9:25 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareThe Obama administration made its big NCLB "waiver" announcement yesterday, getting the predictable, fawning edu-coverage. The announcement featured President Obama bragging, "After waiting far too long for Congress to reform No Child Left Behind, my Administration is giving states the opportunity to set higher, more honest standards in exchange for more flexibility."
Now, let's just stipulate that President Obama and the folks at the Department of Education are good people who want to help kids. But that doesn't excuse an exercise that struck me as hypocritical, graceless, and troubling. Six things about this latest spin of the waiver saga that seemed particularly disconcerting:
First, setting aside my reservations about Sec. Duncan's right to not merely grant selected waivers but to impose wholly new requirements that exist nowhere in federal law. I was struck yesterday by the sheer number and scope of conditions that Duncan cheerfully imposed. These new requirements included, according to the