Important WaPo story for No Child Left Behind tea-leaf watchers, doesn’t mention education because House Ed and Workforce Chair Miller is both a committee chair and a Speaker Pelosi confidante. But, the line about Pelosi feeling she needs to deliver for new members and what they ran on is a down arrow on NCLB in some cases… Miller could be cross-pressured even more than he already is.
But, isn’t the President’s forthcoming budget request (and any private signals he might be sending) pretty key here in terms of whether we get to an NCLB deal? The bottom line is that Democrats Senator Kennedy and Rep. Miller can take one of two things back to their caucuses and get pretty broad support: (1) An eviscerated NCLB with all its sharp (read ed establishment loathed) edges removed or (b) a bunch of money. Of course, some folks want both but that seems an unlikely outcome. Kennedy and Miller want the money, not a gutting of the bill. See this for example (item 2). So the ball is basically in Bush’s court in terms of getting the puzzle pieces to fit together for a 2007 reauthorization. It could happen, though the odds are still somewhat long….