The one question on everyone's mind: Will 2011 be the year that Congress revises No Child Left Behind? Arne Duncan says yes. ?The president is ready to move on this,? he told the Washington Post. Duncan Hunter, the Republican who chairs an education subcommittee,?concurs: ?We have a lot of common ground. We also see a major need. It's time to get it done.? But Post reporter Nick Anderson (or the Post's editors; it's unclear, really, who is writing) is/are skeptical that a revision is in the offing, for several reasons. First, he/they?write(s), ?congressional Republicans have their eyes on other matters, including spending cuts,? and when the Department of Education sees its budget sharply reduced, the expressed goodwill that now exists between congressional Republicans and Arne's underlings could disappear. Second, Republicans have no reason to grant the president a domestic-policy victory. John Boehner may cry when he thinks about poor kids in awful schools, but his colleagues are generally less weepy. And third, ?both parties have well-known internal debates over education reform. Some Republicans don't think the Education Department should exist, and at least a few of them got elected last year.?
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow