Not that it was any secret at this point, but the NCLB Reauthorization is now officially not going to happen in 2007. The key Senators that controlled the Education Committee have stated their plan to take up the law again early next year.

Andrew Rotherham at Eduwonk thinks there may be some activity after the primaries, but that it is still a long shot to be reauthorized before the election. I tend to agree, but I feel pretty confident that that Democratic Senate is not likely to move very quickly on this issue since the chances are high that the Democratic Nominee is likely to be an active Senator and that none of the leading Democratic candidates have particularly focused on education in their campaigns.

So, what does this mean? For now, the Congress on Nov. 1 passed a continuing resolution for 2008 funding for the Department of Education. This basically means that everything is going to stay the same at least for 2008 and the programs will still be funded. Probably we are looking at Summer or Fall 2009 as the next real opportunity to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. So, we will have to wait.