Senate Republicans Introduce NCLB Reauthorization Bill

On Thursday, July 12, Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced the first comprehensive bill for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). S. 1775, the No Child Let Behind Act of 2007, preserves much of the existing accountability system and includes recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Education, the Education Trust, the Council of Great City Schools, the Hispanic Education Coalition, the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, and the Commission on No Child Left Behind.

Notably, the bill:

• Maintains the goal that all children reach grade-level proficiency by 2014;
• Allows for differentiated consequences to ensure that schools where a majority of students are not performing at grade-level are treated differently from schools where a small segment of the school population is not meeting state standards;
• Expands the U.S Department of Education’s growth model program to all 50 states;
• Provides greater flexibility, focus, and resources to help schools with special populations;
• Accelerates access to supplemental tutorial services so parents can choose between sending their child to another public school or accessing tutorial services in the same year;
• Authorizes a new “money follows the child” program that provides financial assistance to districts that permit Title I dollars to follow the child to the public school of his or her choice;
• Requires states to establish a rigorous high school graduation rate by 2011, based on the National Governors Association Graduation Counts Compact;
• Maintains the current definition of highly qualified teachers and emphasizes alternative certification, incentive, differential, and performance and merit pay; and
• Requires states and school districts to implement a plan to ensure that low-income and minority children are as likely to be taught by highly qualified teachers as their peers in more affluent schools.

The Senator’s staff distributed the bill on late Thursday evening with no press conference and little coordination among the other Senators working on NCLB reauthorization bills. Nor was there consultation with staff in the Committee on Education and Labor, who were not aware that it would be introduced. It is believed that Senator’s Gregg staffers worked closely with the U.S. Department of Education to draft this bill. We are in the process of researching the underlying political alliances as well as reviewing the 361 page bill in its entirety. In the coming days we will provide an assessment of how this bill will influence the political strategy for the other pending major reauthorization bills.

Resources:
“Burr Introduces No Child Left Behind Reauthorization,” Senator Richard Burr, Press Releases, July 12, 2007.
Author: DAD