Who Will Lead K-12 Education Policy with Kennedy Gone?

by Mike Smith · 2009-08-31 08:45:00 UTC
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Ted Kennedy has left no apparent heir to lead K-12 issues in the Senate reports Education Week. They explain that all roads to education policy ran through Kennedy, and now there's a great void. They present Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) as a potential new leader, but being in the House, he won't be required to reach across the aisle or compromise as much as Kennedy was used to. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, who was a superintendent himself, may be one to watch as the political climate apparently becomes “post-partisan and reform-oriented,” reports an ex-aide to Bill Clinton. But there's someone that only gets a passing mention: President Obama.

An Education Next-PEPG survey notes "President Barack Obama has the potential to be an extremely influential opinion maker on controversial education policy issues." He may be able to shift public onion, putting pressure on the Senate and the House. It's noted how surprising this is considering how stable public opinion is on education issues.

[Photo credit: changedotgov]

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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