While the NCLB reauthorization debate is almost exclusively behind closed doors right now, the fight over its funding is out in the public.
Alyson Klein’s story for the next issue of Education Week (which was posted on www.edweek.org today) suggests that it’s too soon to predict what might happen. More than 140 House Republicans signed a letter to the president in May saying that they would support the president if he vetoes spending bills. But some of them turned around to vote for the House’s bill that appropriates money for education, labor, and other domestic programs—a bill the president almost certainly will reject.
This story from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) predicts that the president will win the funding fight. But would a budget victory cost him NCLB reauthorization? Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis., suggests it would. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee says he won’t vote for a NCLB bill if the president doesn’t agree to finance the current law. Lots of Democrats may follow his lead.
