Duncan: 'This is not about me.'

Edweek's Alyson Klein interviews Arne Duncan. She asks some good questions about the current contending ESEA bills in the House and Senate, but get's back mostly his usual string of empty cliches.

But then she cuts to the chase.

Under both bills the Secretary of Education would be prohibited from interfering with standards, evaluations, and more. How might that hamstring you or your successor? What do you expect would happen to the federal role?

This really isn't about me. What you want is you want whoever the next person ... the next 20 secretaries, you want them to be able to administer and implement the law. So I think there's some common sense middle ground that we can get to.

But since Duncan will become the first ever Ed Sec to be officially banned from interfering in school business, I'd say, it is, at least in large part, about him. And he's earned it.