At Education Department Rulemaking, Mixed Signals

At Education Department Rulemaking, Mixed Signals

For decades the U.S. Department of Education has been required by law to conduct extensive negotiated rulemaking meetings whenever it wants to issue regulations.  The ritual of stakeholders, policy nerds, and lawyers packed into a room debating the minutiae of regulatory language and data is, in some sense, an affirming exercise in open, participatory democracy, even though the administration in office ultimately has the power to throw out any r…