NCLB Reauthorization Dims

A month ago, a 2007 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reauthorization became less likely. The President held a reauthorization event at the White House Rose Garden where he emphasized the administration’s key goals. They are, not surprisingly, nearly identical to the objectives of the House Republicans which House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) laid out in a September 10 letter to George Miller (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Education. In that letter, Boehner expressed the Republican dissatisfaction with the current discussion draft and laid out the party’s conditions for reauthorization. Those conditions include:

1. Flexibility and local control: Allowing states and local school districts to transfer up to 100 percent of their funds among the various federal education funding streams and provide states with additional flexibility in the design of their accountability systems.
2. School choice: Not restricting current education choices for parents in any way.
3. No new testing.
4. No loopholes in accountability: Rejecting any loophole for chronically underachieving schools to evade identification as a school in need of improvement or avoid restructuring.
5. No national test: National standards and national assessments would also be highly problematic and would represent an improper meddling of the federal government into state and local curriculum decisions.
6. Teacher quality: Include reforms that encourage states to establish pay for performance systems that compensate teachers based on their performance in the classroom and how effective they are in helping students learn and succeed.
7. Streamline federal education programs and do not create any new programs.

The confluence of the President’s statement with Boehner’s requirements may have been an important signal because, later in the week, Howard “Buck” McKeon, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, stated that the conversations on the discussion draft were falling apart because Miller was not willing to make major concessions on these Republican points. Unless Miller makes significant changes, said McKeon, he would have to pass his bill without bipartisan support. “We’re still better off with current law,” concluded the Raking Member.

So what if Miller tries just that, passing his committee’s bill without the Republicans? It would be difficult. There are 435 seats in the House of Representatives and, in the 110th Congress, 232 are Democrats, 202 are Republican and one seat is vacant. Miller would have to secure 218 seats for a majority. That means Miller cannot lose more than 16 Democrats on the issue. Yet, of the 232 Democrats 40 are freshman Democrats, many of which campaigned against NCLB in 2006. Given that the unions are strongly against the current discussion draft and that they will play an important part in the reelection of many of the Freshman Democrats, a passage on Democratic votes alone would be difficult; and, the forecast is even more difficult in the Senate.

The Senate is nearly split with 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 Independents, who caucus with the Democrats. If anything is to move in the Senate, it has to have bipartisan support because the Senate requires 60 votes for cloture to cut off debate on a matter in order to vote. Like the House, the votes do not favor the passage of a partisan ESEA bill in 2007.

Resources:
Steven Dennis, “Talks Stall on No Child Left Behind,” Roll Call, Oct. 11, 2007.
Author: DAD