Missed that one . . .

I'm going to share a third post on the Harkin/Enzi Senate reauthorization of ESEA bill. Why so much focus on this? Because when it finally happens, it will drive federal education policy for years and we have learned with the last two administrations that this can have significant impact on our work. Though I believe that some positive changes were ushered in by NCLB, it also pulled us away from our focus on Classroom 10 and had a huge influence on the focus at the state level. Think charter, assessment, teacher evaluation, and common core.

In my previous post I was skeptical about the chances of the Harkin's bill getting out of committee in a short time. Well, on a 15 to 7 vote it moved from committee to the floor.  I agree with Petrilli at Education Next that this is a big deal.

This is a big deal, folks. The ESEA reauthorization process hasn’t gotten this far since–well, ever. In 2007 the House education committee floated a draft bill which then died an ignominious death. The Senate HELP committee has never produced a bill . So to have a comprehensive bill marked up and sent to the floor represents a significant milestone.


I also found this point from the article very interesting and hadn't really thought about it, but now I can see how this could very well be the current reality of the Democrat's position on reauthorization.
 
Republicans are in the driver’s seat. Yesterday’s unanimous Democratic vote might have been a display of party unity, but it also demonstrated a willingness to vote for almost anything. The Democrats want to send a bill to the President, and they will need Republican votes in order to do that. So expect GOP senators like Lamar Alexander to make their support contingent on key changes to the bill–and to get a lot of what they want. Meanwhile, the House bills (which are being put together in pieces) will surely come out to the right of the Senate. If Democrats want to get something across the finish line, they are going to have to accept something that looks a lot more like Alexander-Burr than Harkin-Enzi.


If you are interested and want to read more, additional articles on the subject are here, here, and here.