Hess: Obama, Duncan Underestimate Rigor Of RttT Oversight Process To Come

I keep saying incoming Republicans in the House are going to subpoena everyone and everything in sight, and while Arne Duncan thinks there is plenty of bipartisan support for his education policies, I think he and his boss underestimate the political rancor the GOP will be displaying come January for ALL Obama policies, including education.

Rick Hess agrees:

It's now clear that House Republicans are going to launch an aggressive series of oversight and investigative hearings. Majority Leader-to-be Eric Cantor and Rep. Darrell Issa, in line to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, have been talking about the forceful hearings schedule they've got in mind. And Rep. John Kline, expected to chair the House Committee on Education and Labor, has said that the need to step up oversight is one of his primary objectives in the next Congress.

It's pretty likely that this will include hard looks at favored edu-programs like Race to the Top and i3. For those who recall the Democratic hearings on Reading First, it's easy to imagine how some of the luster may be rubbed off these programs. Aggressive oversight, especially if some of the hearings hit home, will produce bruised feelings and make it harder to cooperate on reauthorization. And we'll have to see what the House might do as far as looking at ED's push to craft regulations around "gainful employment" or implement the changes to student lending in the health care bill.

For what it's worth, conversations in the past week have left me thinking that the administration and its key allies never really believed that the Republicans might aggressively pursue hearings into RTT, i3, or related efforts. It doesn't seem like they're steeled for the pushback or girded to answer any concerns.

For instance, here's where ED would've been well-advised to follow Andy Rotherham's advice a few months back to convene a commission to review RTT and i3 for the purpose of identifying problems, missteps, and to offer recommendations. Such an effort could've proved real helpful in anticipating and addressing concerns should the House press forward. Whoops.

I say good, give these programs the oversight and they deserve.

Up until now, Arne Duncan has been feted from editorial board meetings to editorial pages to TV talk shows for his "innovative education policies" like Race to the Top and i3.

Both Duncan and his ed policies have yet to undergo any aggressive oversight in Washington or independent critique by much of the mainstream media.

If Republicans can provide that aggressive oversight and force the mainstream media to begin to critique the Obama ed policies rather than aggrandize them, that will be a good thing.

We'll see.

It's always dangerous to count on Republicans to do the right thing.

But sometimes, when it's in their political interests to do so, they will.