The Education Wars: ESEA Reauthorization

The U.S. House will start hearings next week on the reauthorization of ESEA, which includes the despicable No Child Left Behind law, which has created this mess public schools are in and Obama/Duncan have accelerated.

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is getting kicked into high gear with the announcement today that the House will start holding hearings next Wednesday, with the first meeting focused on charter schools.

In a joint statement, the top Democrats and Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee said they were launching a "bipartisan, open, and transparent effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind," the current version of the ESEA.

Of course, take note that this is a bipartisan group in the House; the Senate has been mum. But given the failure so far to get passage of health-care reform--a top domestic priority for the Obama administration--many have hoped the ESEA would provide an opportunity for bipartisan support, and a success for President Obama.

They don't need to "rewrite" NCLB--they need to throw it in the trash.

But of course the billionaires aren't going to allow that.