Dear brothers and sisters, after our great leader, Tom DeLay, the House Republicans have elected me, a simple, humble worker in Tom’s vineyard.
And with those words (or something to that effect anyway) House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) is now the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.
While it’s unclear how Boehner’s ascendancy will do much to address concerns that the House majority leadership is too close to lobbyists, it does have big eduimplications. First, it means that the House Ed and Workforce Committee will get a new chairman in Buck McKeon (R-CA). He’s more of a higher ed guy than a K-12 guy though. Second, if you were hoping that No Child Left Behind was going to go away then this is bad news for you. Boehner was one of the “big 4” along with Rep. Miller (D-CA) and Sens. Kennedy (D-MA) and Gregg (R-NH) who cut the final deal on the law, he’s been strongly supportive, and the Republican leadership keeps pretty tight reins on what the House does. Finally, if you were hoping for more tobacco money to pay for some new eduinitiatives, that’s probably off the table now…
Incidentally, just Wednesday Boehner covered his right flank with the righty folks who are all upset about this Bush Administration proposal…every vote counts in these races.