Alexander Russo helpfully proves my point. He posts a bunch of links on Arne Duncan’s struggles with and resistance to the implementation of NCLB. Those clips don’t prove, as Russo thinks, that Duncan is an NCLB hater. If he was, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., wouldn’t have invited him to testify in a July hearing that turned into a love-fest for the law.
One source of mine reviewed Duncan’s testimony from that day. In retrospect, the source said, it sounded as if Duncan was making the case to be Barack Obama’s secretary of education. Obama’s endorsement of the law hasn’t been resounding, but he was more supportive than the Democrats he beat for the nomination. And, like him, his nominee to be secretary of education wants to preserve key elements of the law and improve its administration.
If I had to nominate a poster child for NCLB resistance, I’d pick Reg Weaver. How about you?