Lots of people want answers to specific questions about the future of NCLB during today’s chat on what Tuesday’s election will mean for NCLB and other education issues.
I explained that the president-elect’s stances on the law are vague. I could predict some things: the accountability system will morph into some sort of growth model, and that the next version of the law still will track students by various subgroups. But I have no sense of exactly what those changes will look like. I don’t think anybody does.
As I responded to questions, I was listening to the Gadfly Show, where Kevin Carey of the Quick and the Ed and Mike Petrilli of Flypaper analyzed the political impact of election.
Carey agrees that Obama’s education policy may look a lot like President Bush’s—something first suggested by Jay Mathews of The Washington Post. “He could have run hard against No Child Left Behind, but he did not,” Carey said.
Here’s Petrilli’s take: Obama built his own political organization so he won’t be indebted to the teachers’ unions. Congressional Democrats relied on the unions to pad their majority. That may mean Obama may need help from Republicans, many of whom “will be running away from that law as fast as they can” now that Bush is out of the White House.
Well said, gentleman. But the Gadfly Show just isn’t the same without Checker Finn’s voice in the intro music.
