NYT’s Schemo manages to miss a really interesting story (two of them actually). First, the NCLB tension evidenced in this story is less Republican and Democrat than differences between the Democratic committee chairs on the House and Senate education committees and their leadership. The money issue can be resolved in the context of a deal, the bigger problem is that while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks NCLB is punitive, George Miller and Ted Kennedy don’t. That’s the story and it’s not about more or less money for NCLB…*
Second interesting tension, Kennedy and Senator Dodd are in different places over this national standards business…Gonna be plenty of that going around since several of Kennedy’s committee members seem to have their eye on running for President, Dodd, Obama, and Clinton. He’s going to be as much zookeeper as chairman. Let’s hope though that they have better luck than the Republican committee members who already went down that road, Hatch and Alexander…Is HELP a launch pad or graveyard?
*They almost always write the story through the welfare state prism, more money, less money, Republicans against Democrats, but this isn’t the 1980s and Reagan is not President…