Republican Candidates Take Aim At Federal Role In Education.

The New York Times (10/8, Gabriel, Subscription Publication) reported that a number of candidates in the GOP presidential primary race are voicing sharp criticism of ED and the Federal government's role in education policy, painting this rhetoric as a departure from decades of "loose bipartisan agreement that the federal government has a necessary role to play in the nation's 13,600 school districts, primarily by using money to compel states to raise standards." The Times contrasts this with President George W. Bush's aspiration "to be the 'education president,'" and notes that even President Obama's Race to the Top initiative "used federal money to leverage change that many Republicans had long endorsed - charter schools and teacher evaluations that tied effectiveness in the classroom to tenure." Meanwhile, though he is "feeling the hot breath of Tea Party anti-federalism," former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has praised Education Secretary Arne Duncan "for promoting 'school choice' and tying teacher evaluations to student test scores."