Ten is the new five  Once upon a time, major federal education
legislation was authorized for five years at a time and funds
could only be appropriated for programs so long as the
authorization remained valid. As a result, big fat laws such as
E.S.E.A. and the Higher Education Act were, in fact,
reauthorized every five years, always with amendments and
additions, sometimes with improvements. That was the fundamental
rhythm of federal education policymaking.  This rhythm began to
slow in 1980, when the "General Education Provisions Act" was
amended to provide for "automatic extensions" of program
authorizations for up to two additional years. In other words,
Congress gave itself two extra years to renew programs that were
nominally on five-year cycles.  Subsequently, the Appropriations
Committees figured out that they didn't really need programs to
be reauthorized before they could be re-funded, i.e. that
appropriations acts themselves could temporarily extend the
programs funded therein. I can't quite make ou