In the early days of the Obama administration, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was the bipartisan superstar. At Duncan’s confirmation hearing, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told him, “President-elect Obama has made several distinguished cabinet appointments, but in my view of it all, I think you are the best.”

But while Duncan continues to champion ideas, like charter schooling and smarter teacher evaluation, that enjoy bipartisan support, his methods have become increasingly imperious. Indeed, Alexander, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, now warns that Duncan is trying to turn the federal Department of Education into a “National School Board.” Listen to key conservative critics and Hill staff long enough, and you can’t help but start to see Duncan as a giant octopus, using waivers as tentacles to command education policy down to the individual district level.