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For edu wonks, the long awaited revamping of No Child Left Behind is afoot, and one of the first fun bits was President Obama's recent decision to let states "waive" some of the key requirements of the law, most notably the mandate that all students tested score proficient or better in math and reading by 2014.

You can't get through this stuff without a run on sentence, it seems.

Anyway, Ed Week reports that states have lined up like lemmings in the quest for waivers. Understandably so. The 100 percent goal was never realistic, as I've written many times and won't rehash here. As of today, 39 states have taken early steps to seek waivers. Pennsylvania is not one of them. Why not?

Because the waivers come with a whole different set of mandates, mostly variations on reforms pushed into schools through the President's "Race to the Top" program, which used about $4 billion in stimulus money to entice districts to make substantial changes.

In order to opt out of NCLB requirements, you've got to opt in to a whole new set of mandates.

State Department of Ed Spokesman Tim Eller put it succinctly in the Ed Week article: "In Pennsylvania, this is viewed by many as a replacement program, not a waiver program."

Yes, Yossarian, there is a catch.

It's government; there's always a catch.

About this Blog

My column is neither beat or subject specific, and has ranged from whimsical to hard news. Since I'm primarily an education reporter and a native of the Hazleton area, those often draw my focus.

About the Author

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

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