NCLB Reauthorization Progresses

Congress was out of session while members of Congress celebrated the 4th of July in their home districts, staffers in the House Committee on Education and Labor were working overtime to draft new language for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) based on the more than 100 proposals and 13 hearings held before the House Committee this year.

According to discussions with informed staffers, the negotiations are moving along and there is hope to produce a bill by the middle of July, and possibly as early as next week. That will be a challenge for at least two reasons. First, the House education staffers are attempting to make many technical changes to the law in a short time frame, and some report that much work remains. But, even if they manage to strike a promising balance between accountability and flexibility, the emerging election politics make the introduction of anything but a well vetted and supported bill a risky political move. If, for example, Chairman George Miller introduced a vastly more demanding bill, he would certainly encounter push-back from the federalist Republicans who signed onto Representative Peter Hoekstra’s (R-MI) H.R. 1539, the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act, which would return the authority for education reform back to the states and effectively negate NCLB. He would also face opposition from the House freshman Democrats who are very critical of the law’s current requirements.

Beginning to address political challenge, Chairman Miller recently sent out a memo to House freshman that solicits their feedback on a variety of critical matters including growth models, targeted interventions, funding flexibility, highly qualified teachers and more. (See the accompanying file to this edition of the Update). Mr. Miller hopes that this outreach will facilitate party unity behind the reauthorization, but that is uncertain.

Given the political and technical challenges, the Democratic leadership could shift their strategy from a comprehensive reauthorization to a short-term piecemeal legislative process. This approach would buy the education committees more time to address the law’s technical matters and to develop the political coalitions that the final passage will require. But regardless of the evolving strategy, Chairman Miller will still introduce a bill in the coming weeks, which will generate a torrent of debate on the reauthorization of NCLB this summer.

Resource: Stephan Langel, “House Lawmakers Push for No Child Left Behind Legislation by August,” Congress Now, 7/5/2007.
Author: DAD