This "No Child Left Behind" shrinkage will never get past the inevitable Democrat filibuster, of course, and if it did Barack Obama would veto it. Like any other piece of conservative reform, it will be DOA until at least January 20th, 2017, if not forever. Which is most of why I don't typically feel all that motivated to write about such things, other than perhaps to remind Tea Partiers that the GOP Congress is attempting to govern despite the obstructions that will continue to keep them from attaining policy success at it.
But some of the comments in this story were too good not to parse:
The House narrowly passed a Republican-led rewrite of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law on Wednesday, voting to dramatically lessen the federal role in education policy for the nation's public schools.
The bill, sponsored by Minnesota-2 Representative John Kline, gives States and local school districts more control over assessing the performance of schools, teachers and their students. It also prohibits the federal government from requiring or encouraging specific sets of academic standards, such as Common Core, and allows federal money to follow low-income children to public schools of their choice, an issue known as portability.
There should, of course, be no federal money for local schools absent a constitutional amendment giving the federal government that power. But this bill is a significant step in the right direction.
The vote was 218-213, with no Democrats supporting the measure and twenty-seven Republicans voting against it.
And they'll be futilely primaried, no doubt.
Democrats spouted the usual "If the federal government doesn't fund it, it'll cease to exist" statist nonsense.
Commissar of Reeducation Arne Duncan:
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the bill fails to help struggling schools and the children they teach.
"House Republicans have chosen to take a bad bill and make it even worse," Duncan said in a statement. "Instead of supporting the schools and educators that need it most, this bill shifts resources away from them."
Schools are "struggling" because government runs them, Arne, and because they're teaching leftist Ameriphobic, counter-cultural, and racist garbage and lies instead of the truth and basic practical skills, like the "three R's". "Resources" - and U.S. primary and secondary education has been grotesquely overfunded for years precisely because funding levels have been equated with educational "success" - have nothing whatsodamnever to do with it.
Senator "Peppermint" Patty Murray (D-WA):
Senator Patty Murray, D-WA, who co-sponsored the bill, countered that the change would "retreat on our fundamental commitment to make sure that every child has access to a quality education."
The operative word being "quality," a commodity that Democrats wouldn't recognize if they were drowning in it, and which, again, they equate with money in huge, enormous stacks.
As I noted in my lede, the Senate did, indeed, shoot down its equivalent bill 52-45, and the House defeated a measure to abolish "No Child Left Behind" altogether 235-195. Obviously there is a very long way to go to reconstitutionalize education in this country.
But forward steps are being taken, even if they are just baby ones. And as far behind as we are, it's not about the "long bomb," but about keeping the chains moving.
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