I think he's being too pessimistic, but Rand Simberg is pessimistic about the space report that I was excited about below. He also helpfully points to the actual report recommendations.

I think he's missing a major point: at this point, NASA is a pork agency not a space agency. Its primary purpose is to fund jobs for voters in certain Senators' and Congressmen's areas. That being the case, any truly radical reform is simply impossible. He may be right about the missed opportunity as far as getting schoolchildren engaged, but beyond that, I think the best we can ever hope for is small incremental changes that move NASA toward relying more on private industry for actual launch services.