Melody Barnes, President Obama’s top domestic policy adviser, will leave her post at the end of the year, Politico‘s Mike Allen was the first to report.

Barnes, whose portfolio included high-profile education matters such as Race to the Top and ESEA reauthorization, gave the canned, but credible reason for departing what must be a grind of a job: a desire to spend more time with her family.

You may remember that almost one year ago, Barnes told an audience at an Education Week event that renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was going to be a priority for the Obama administration in 2011. At that same event, Barnes also said that the public is not going to tolerate “partisan tussling and dead-end ideological debates” when it comes to overhauling our schools.

Wonder what her take is this week on the tussling and debate that’s taking place in the Senate education committee?