Sen. Tom Harkin to Chair the Education Committee

This from Politics K-12:

It's official! Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is going to be the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Comittee. As we've said before, this puts Harkin, who already has control of the Senate subcommittee that oversees education spending, in a very powerful position.

He's now the go-to guy in the Senate on both money and policy for K-12 schools, just as the reauthorizations of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are likely to get going.

So what will this mean? Mandatory full funding of special education may actually become a reality, for one.

And Harkin will almost certainly push for a federal school facilities program. And he may give the administration some push back on K-12 issues...