The 74 Million – Matt Barnum
“No one doubts the significance of Arne Duncan’s tenure as Secretary of Education. He has aggressively shaped education policy for the last several years, and his legacy will endure for many more to come. He has presided over both a dramatic increase in the federal government’s authority over American schools as well as a sharp scaling back of that federal power in the form of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was signed into law just last week. In many ways the latter can be seen as a response of the former, a rebuke to the agenda he so aggressively put forward, but in other ways it is the perfect capstone, cementing his place in history. Duncan has effectively taken the ladder up with him, meaning the next President will have limited ability to fully roll back the ambitious goals Duncan’s Department of Education pursued. States, empowered by the new law, will be able to continue with Duncan’s policies or roll them back.”(more)