Congress: Can Kline And Duncan Make A Deal?

That's the question that the National Journal's education experts will be debating this week, starting Monday morning -- whether Kline's calls for enhancing local control (and presumably loosening the NCLB reins) can mesh with Duncan's desire to keep Race to the Top going (here).  I don't see much problem on the policy side, frankly -- Duncan says he wants to loosen NCLB up, too -- but others would disagree vehemently and I'm not sure that there's any real political will there to get it done anytime soon (no matter how many times Melody Barnes says that education is a top White House priority).  It certainly won't happen during the upcoming lame duck session, and I doubt it happens next year. The following year is an election year, so it's looking more and more like 2013 for anything more than minor fixes for NCLB. My guess is that Obama and Duncan might be able to wheedle some extra cash for RTTT through the annual budget process but of course nothing like the 3.4B they got in ARRA.