The No Child Left Behind Act expired in September 2007. But the Act provides for automatic extensions until Congress can fit reauthorization on their agenda. For the past few years, the recession and health care reform have consumed the Congress' attention, but recent statements from the President and House and Senate leaders signal that 2011 is the year to tackle education reform.
In the State of the Union address, President Obama gave the first signal. He made the case that America should invest in educational innovation “as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what’s best for our kids.” Last year the Education Department published A Blueprint for Reform—the administration's outline for a new bill.
A day after the State of the Union address, Sen. Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the Senate was taking on a comprehensive revision of NCLB. After ten hearings held last year, Harkin said the committee was now writing a bill for mark-up, and he expected the floor debate to start by early summer. Given the extent of bi-partisan agreement about what needed revising, Sen. Harkin was hopeful that a bill could pass the Senate by the end of summer.
In early February, Rep John Kline, (R-MN) the new Chairman of the House Education Committee announced that the House would start committee hearings soon. Rep. Klein declared his preference for making incremental instead of significant changes in NCLB, especially since legislators could isolate the most glaring problems with the law. Rep. Klein asserted that he would watch that “investment” in educational innovation wasn’t unrestrained spending.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has reiterated at multiple events that he will give an all-out effort to NCLB reauthorization in 2011 because does not think it could pass in 2012, an election year. Optimistic about bi-partisan cooperation, Sec. Duncan says, “Everybody sees what’s not working. Everybody sees the disincentives or perverse incentives in the current law.”
Will debate in the House and Senate expose familiar party clashes underneath a fragile bi-partisanship--clashes over spending, teacher’s unions and the reach of federal government? Or, will legislators constrain this debate in order to fix NCLB's punitive accountability that will likely give an unsatisfactory grade to as many as 80% of public schools?
Background Information:
PCM Core Article: What is No Child Left Behind?
PCM Top 10 Education Policies
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