cautious celebration today

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Now that the Democrats have regained control of the House and -- at the very least -- have increased their strength in the Senate, what effect will this have on the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB?

Some argue, "This is a Republican, George Bush thing and will die with the Bush administration." I've heard this one told many times by wide-eyed Democrats/progressives. Let's not forget that NCLB was ushered into existence with the help of key Democrats like George Miller from CA in the House and Ted Kennedy in the Senate. So will NCLB just go away with Dubbya? Extremely unlikely.

According to a story in today's Inside Higher Education (http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/08/congress), the chairmanship of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce would presumably go to the senior Democrat on the panel, Miller of California. "But news reports Tuesday indicated that Miller might opt instead to become chairman of the House Resources Committee, which oversees environmental issues, hugely important in the Congressman’s home state. If Miller were to take the Resources job, the education chairmanship would probably fall to Rep. Dale E. Kildee of Michigan, who is very popular with college officials, and is seen as somewhat more bipartisan than Miller."

More bipartisan than Miller? While this kind of pabulum sounds nice on certain issues, what we do not need is more "bipartisanship" on education. Such bipartisanship got us in the mess we are in now. What we need is someone with a spine, who knows the issues related to public education, and who will fight for the rights of children.

So for those of us sympathetic to progressive causes and who side -- somewhat reluctantly -- with the Democrats, let's give our perfunctory three cheers for yesterday's victories. But let's push these newly-elected folks on the issue of education. Let's leverage the recent statement from the National Association of Elementary Principals (http://www.naesp.org/client_files/ESEA-8-06.pdf) that lays out what the reauthorization of NCLB should look like. Let's make this victory really mean something.

Peter