Apparently, this is the first time in 15years that the Feds have "reformed" school lunch rules. All the special interest groups are have their hands in the school lunch kitchens.
Our district has made changes in the caf. selections, already. Honestly, I like being able to choose hummus, salads, and soy beans over "deep-fried everything" and pizza. However, I'm not sure if the students agree.
This article takes a macro look at what education might look like in a post NCLB world. The fact that we are even talking about a post NCLB world seems like a fundamental shift to me.
In 2008-2009, nearly $24 billion in loans and grants went to about 2k for-profit schools under federal student aid programs. About 20 years ago there was some concern by the Fed that the schools were recruiting students not ready or capable for higher education. A lot of the students were not prepared for the jobs they were supposedly trained for and so they never got jobs in those areas. In turn many of them defaulted on their student loans. Congress put the 85/15 rule in place - meaning that the for profit schools would have to raise 15% of their student aid from other sources. That was reduced to 10% in the late 90s under Clinton.
These new guidelines from the Virginia Board of Education are a perfect example of passing the buck....when the board initially created these guidelines in January, they were very explicit and strict and there was a lot of backlash to it.(http://www.doe.virginia.gov/boe/meetings/2011/01_jan/agenda_items/item_j.pdf)
Now if you read the March guidelines, you can clearly see that the board is now asking local boards to define and create policies regarding social networking interactions between students and staff.
Seems similar to feds asking states to define mandates, doesn't it?