Over-Reaching On NCLB Predictions At The Washington Post

Everyone's hoping that newbie education reporter Amit Paley (left) turns out to be a great addition to the national education beat, and indeed he's done some good, analytic work in recent months. But this latest piece (Ex-Aides Break With Bush on 'No Child') seems like a reach -- at best an effort to make news rather than cover it and at worst a preconceived notion slapped onto circumstances that don't quite fit. If Karl Rove or Rod Paige came out against NCLB, now that would be something. And if Congressional conservatives being upset about the law was new, or growing, that would be something. But Gene Hickock, Ron Tomalis, Brian Jones, and Gerry Reynolds complaining about the law (and EdSec Spellings) doesn't really seem compelling. Eduwonk is somewhat gentler but generally of the same sentiment here.

Comments

[Chester West]

C'mon Alexander. Hickok coming out against NCLB is big news in the Beltway-sphere, i.e., WaPo readership. All the while he was bringing the hammer down on noncompliant states and spouting the law's benefits, Hickok was having second thoughts about it!?

Now he tells us!

[Alexander]

i get what you're saying, and yes it's pretty ugly him in particular saying that he didn't believe what he was making everyone else do, and yes -- this is new, actually -- paley deserves credit for getting him and others on record.