NCLB: Did The NEA "Goldilocks" Harkin?

There are currently two big pushes going on in Washington, neither of which it seems to me have much chance of going anywhere but nonetheless provide distraction and amusement:

The first is the ever-changing Harkin-Enzi reauthorization proposal, which went through a weekend switcheroo that seems not to have accomplished very much, substantively or politically.  Get yourself somewhat up to speed with these two articles: Teacher Evaluation Scaled Back in Senate's Revised ESEA Draft Politics K-12 and Federal Government's Role In Grading Teachers At Center Of Legislative Fight HuffED.  Enzi and the NEA may like the bill better now, which could help Harkin get the bill out of committee, but everyone else hates the thing even more than they did on Friday.    

"The NEA will always goldilocks you," [DFER policy director Charlie] Barone said. "Harkin took the evaluations statement Van Roekel made a few months ago and put it in the bill, and then didn't have his support. What they wound up with was nothing."*

The second is this White House's push to win $35B for its Teacher/First Responder proposal, which Duncan and others are going everywhere to push but seems unlikely to do anything other than give Democrats something to bash Republicans about for the next year.  It's not 2009, folks, you can't just propose stuff and have it get enacted.  For more on this: Democrats Planning Major Capitol Hill Rally To Push Obama's Jobs Bill Huffington Post: A Democratic source says that on Wednesday, the party is likely to host firefighters, cops and other first responders along with teachers who face the threat of being laid off should lawmakers not send additional funds to states.  ALSO: Democrats To Force Vote 'Very Soon' On Bill AND: Tester, Nelson unsure on teachers bill POLITICO.

*To be fair, Goldilocks did go through a reasonable decisionmaking process and eventually made a choice she could live with.