ESEA Reauth Watch

Statement from Chairman Miller’s office announces plans for “a bipartisan, open, and transparent” effort to reauthorize ESEA, working with ranking member John Kline, and Reps. Dale Kildee and Michael Castle, the chair and ranking Republican of the subcommittee that deals with elementary and secondary education. First hearing, scheduled for March 26, will be on charter schools. I’m all for reauthorizing ESEA in a bipartisan fashion–it’s one of the few important policy areas today that don’t break down on increasingly polarized political lines, and given the intra-party divides here, a productive ESEA reauthorization is probably possible only with support from both sides of the aisle–but given the fairly significant challenges and track record of Republicans working with the Democratic majority on anything in this Congress, I’m not holding my breath.

UPDATE : Andy Smarick has some good additional thoughts and Eduflack has more.

-Sara Mead