The conservative agenda in public education: payback

It's been a couple of wild and wooly weeks. I've been online but not long enough to post anything substantial.

However, this article posted by kos caught my eye. Pulling out just the public education agenda:

•Education. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., says Congress "must undo" Bush's signature No Child Left Behind Act, which sets national standards for education. He says Washington should stay out of schools.

Interesting that out of all the Christian conservative agenda items you could write about, this writer picks out the one little piece that the progressives against NCLB agree on. There's quite a bit more the Christian conservatives, such as Pence, are demanding, items (such as school prayer and vouchers) which are much more to the point but certainly more provocative. It's too bad journalists need to tiptoe in their reporting.

Now the less radical route, as espoused together by the corporate 'Dems' embedded on our side with their conservative think tank buddies, will probably get us to the same place that people like Pence want right now. Very conveniently, here's a recent policy statement from a conservative thinktank piece, drawing largely from Finn of the Fordham Foundation and Hess of the American Enterprise Institute.

Note that this way, the long drawn out way, will probably squeeze out tons more public money for corporate entities. This corporate/conservative Christian tension being played out in conservative public education policy will probably dominate Spellings' tenure. Either way, the end result will be the same.