Not so fast, Arne!

Congress, ever-mindful of who holds the federal pursestrings, may well fund the education jobs bill from Race to the Top funds:

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, just introduced the latest version of the edujobs bill, which would appear to skim some $500 million from the administration's signature education reform initiative in hopes of coming up with $10 billion to help stave off layoffs.

And that's not all. From my reading of the draft now up on the House Rules Committee website, it seems another $200 million would come out of the Teacher Incentive Fund, which helps districts create pay-for-performance programs. That program received $400 million in fiscal 2009, plus $200 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The draft bill also would cut $100 million appropriated to the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal 2009 for innovation and improvement. It looks like that refers to the part of the law that deals with charter schools.

All of which not only de-funds (or cuts funds) for the major parts of the Obama-Duncan education platform, it also demonstrates some clear differences of opinion among Democrats on education policy:

The important implication here is that congressional Dems, and especially David Obey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, aren't on board with the direction Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are moving in education reform. Obey, in a hearing earlier this year, clearly telegraphed that he thought preserving jobs was more important than advancing reform.

or, I would say, advancing "reform."
Good time to call one's Congressman!