Education Law in Dire Need of New Name

At least 28 more plan to seek one

(NEWSER) - Ten of the first 11 states to apply for a waiver from the controversial No Child Left Behind law will be freed from the law's requirements by President Obama today, the AP reports. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee received the waivers; New Mexico's application was not approved, but it is working with the White House to get the OK. Another 28 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, are expected to seek waivers in the future; the heavily populated states of California, Pennsylvania, and Texas are among those that have not yet signaled they will apply. More»

Michael Hayden says it would have backfired then, and would now, too

(NEWSER) - George W. Bush's administration pondered an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and ultimately rejected it, says former CIA and NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden. He and others concluded that an attack on Iran's nuke factories "would guarantee that which we are trying to prevent—an Iran that will spare nothing to build a nuclear weapon and that would build it in secret," Hayden said, according to Foreign Policy . The same rationale holds true today, he warned: Go with diplomacy and back channels or risk pushing Tehran into speeding things up. More»

Arne Duncan says he's encouraging them to do so

(NEWSER) - It’s been a week since Barack Obama offered to let states out of No Child Left Behind's strictest provisions , and states are jumping to take him up on it. At least 27 states have already told the administration they’re opting out, and most of the rest are still considering it, MSNBC reports. To earn a waiver states must adopt higher standards in some areas than the law requires, but most have already done so. More»

States can submit applications next month

(NEWSER) - Arne Duncan promised to take action on No Child Left Behind if Congress didn't, and now he's making good on that promise. With efforts to reform the controversial 2002 education law stalled in Congress, the Obama administration will allow states to apply to be exempted from the law. More details are due next month, when applications for the waivers will start being accepted. States had been "clamoring" for some sort of action, Duncan says—"desperately." More»

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(NEWSER) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient defense secretary in decades.” So what can we learn from his tenure?

• Buy time. Defense Department reviews following troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan gave Presidents Bush and Obama a sense of the military’s trajectory—and they bought time against critics calling for quick drawdowns.