He writes: “Answering the question ‘Is Bush a Conservative?’ in Commentary, Daniel Casse of the White House Writers Group notes that a major theme of Bush’s governance is ‘deconstructing domestic-policy monopolies (Medicare, Social Security, teachers unions, etc.).’ And NCLB, although flawed, ‘has succeeded in changing the terms of debate.’

“‘For years,’ he writes, ‘”progress” in education was measured by the expenditure of ever more federal dollars and the appeasement of Washington-based pressure groups.’ Today the argument is about standards — how to measure and meet them — and how much autonomy schools should have in doing so. That is progress that will not be easily reversed, partly because it is popular with a constituency, the inner city poor, that Democrats often abuse in order to mollify a rival constituency, the teachers unions.”

Will has picked out one of the least persuasive of Casse’s points in that article. In the actual debate over Bush’s education reforms, opponents have two main themes: 1) Standards are bad and oppressive, 2) Meeting the standards will require more money from Washington. The argument simply has not evolved the way Casse and Will claim that it has. Besides, national politics has featured debates over “standards” since at least the Williamsburg summit of 1989.