Slowly, the most important details of the Bush reauthorization plan are coming out -- a private school option we’ve seen before (but will play differently now that Congress is on record for vouchers in DC and New Orleans), the likely expansion of the growth model option for meeting AYP, some uncertain language regarding highly qualified teachers, and -- most obviously inflammatory -- beefed-up requirements for schools in restructuring and districts with inequitable distribution of teachers that could abrogate collective bargaining agreements and contradict state or local charter law.
The reactions so far have been as you’d expect. But the main thing missing or underplayed from the NCLB reauthorization coverage so far is that, in essentially rolling out their reauthorization proposal this week, the Administration made a choice that has substantive and political ramifications.
They could have waited until the Aspen Commission report came out. They could have developed a joint proposal with Kennedy and Miller. They could have waited until the budget was released next week. But they didn’t. Of course, this approach let’s the Administration do what it did for many months on Iraq, which is to say “we have a plan, where’s yours?” And that’s worked out really well for them so far, I guess.