Reflexive Contrarianism?

I’m starting to think that if Senator Obama were to propose a national school voucher program today, Mike Petrilli would be reading us NEA talking points tomorrow…

Here he walks back No Child Left Behind again.  But the problems Mike points out were foreseen in 2001.   Federal level policymaking like this is an evolution, punctuated by dramatic change every now and again, it’s not a moonshot.   There are all sorts of equities wrapped up in any national education policy — competing ideas and compromises, the views of powerful legislators, administration priorities, civil rights concerns, etc… — and that’s why thngs generally look the way the do.  You never go broke if your job is to be a critic and progress is a gradual sweep over time.  I’m all for big ideas, that’s part of how I earn my living, but the day to day realities of making policy matter, too.