NCLB Negotiations

On Monday, Secretary Spellings continued her charm offensive for the reauthorization for the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). She met with the “Big 4” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, including Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), ranking member Mike Enzi (R-WY), Representative George Miller (D-CA) and ranking member Howard McKeon (R-CA). According to the Washington education intelligentsia, Secretary Spellings continued to advocate for the Administration’s Blueprint, with particular emphasis on the core principles, including:

On Monday, Secretary Spellings continued her charm offensive for the reauthorization for the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). She met with the “Big 4” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, including Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), ranking member Mike Enzi (R-WY), Representative George Miller (D-CA) and ranking member Howard McKeon (R-CA). According to the Washington education intelligentsia, Secretary Spellings continued to advocate for the Administration’s Blueprint, with particular emphasis on the core principles, including:
• All students reading and doing math at or above grade level by 2014;
• Annual assessments and disaggregation of data to close the achievement gap;
• Qualified teachers in core academic subjects in every classroom; and
• Timely information and options for all parents.
The Blueprint advocacy was expected, but it was the unexpected apple-shaped cookies with “NCLB ASAP” icing that won the day. Conversation, we are told, was chirpy but even the cookies may not have impacted political equation. Both parties are in the process of defining themselves for the rapidly coming 2008 elections. The Republican leadership is coalescing around more state based autonomy and their pre-NCLB principles. The Democratic leadership is working to secure a united and effective voting record, showing that they are not a “do-nothing” Congress as many coined their predecessors in the 109th Congress. Neither trend bode well for the bipartisan coalition required to amend and reauthorize the law.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate education committee staff are sifting through the more than 130 NCLB recommendations, vetting their priorities and trying to craft language that strikes a workable balance between greater state autonomy and improved technical accountability requirements, which may take longer than they hoped.
Resources:
Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education: January 2007), http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/nclb/buildingonresults.html

Next time you are in Washington, DC and visiting us in Georgetown, try Furin’s iced cookies. If reauthorization occurs in 2007, these cookies may be the reason, http://www.furins.com/catering_desserts.html.
Author: DAD