Rigor Or Rigor Mortis?

If Eduwonk’s voice and email is any indication Sam Dillon’s Sunday NYT front-page splash about new federal student aid provisions tied to high school curriculum is causing a lot of chatter. At the superficial level, plenty of tongue-wagging about be careful what you wish for, federal rules usually follow federal money…

More seriously, two issues worth watching: First, does this article wake up the righties in the House of Representatives to this issue and create pressure on them from the Eagle Forum type groups? Second, substantively, this is tricky to do. It’s one thing for a state like Texas to have a state scholars program and another to have federal requirements that work across fifty states and don’t lead to changes in course names with no corresponding changes in the content. It can be done but make no mistake it’s an expansion of the federal role.

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