Big Business Weighs in on NCLB Reauthorization

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has weigned in on the NCLB Reauthorization and they are not happy about the concept of multiple measures. But they seem to be o.k. with growth models for accountability purposes.

With Congress scheduled to resume work next month, Rothkopf voiced anxiety about the calendar—not the legislative timetable but the 2009[sic] presidential-election calendar. As campaign rhetoric gets louder later this year and next, he said, getting reauthorization legislation through both houses of Congress will become more of a longshot.

The Chamber is right, unless Congress can get the reauthorization done before the end of this Congressional session, i.e. the end of the year, it is pretty much unlikely to get done beyond a quick and dirty reauthorization.

I predicted this as well a while back. The politics of the matter are so divisive that it really is unlikely that anything substantive will be done. When Congress returns, there will be a rush to complete the appropriations bills, the whole Iraq report from Gen. Petraeus and associated inquiries, and oh yeah, the investigations that this Congress seems much more adept at performing than actual legislation.