Chairman Kennedy First Off the Blocks (1/11/2008)

This Tuesday was the sixth anniversary of the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and it received considerable attention in Washington. In an effort to get his message out before others could this week, Senator Kennedy (D-MA) published an editorial in the Washington Post on the reauthorization of the law. In “How to Fix ‘No Child,’” Kennedy made the point that he will navigate the law’s fate in 2008 and that the law will not disappear while he is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

“We in Congress,” wrote the Chairman, “have an obligation to parents, to teachers and, most of all, to schoolchildren across America to draw the right lessons from these past six years with the No Child Left Behind Act and put school reform on a stronger path for the future.” Kennedy, of course, did not clarify what this path would be, but he did identify some top priorities including the use of multiple measures to determine the status of schools, dealing with the “drop out crisis,” parental involvement, better teacher training and mentoring and adequate funding for school reform.

Most interesting, Sen. Kennedy evoked his brother Robert Kennedy to support the continuing work on the reauthorization of NCLB. This, to be sure, is something that he does not do lightly and it is another reminder that genuine legislative education activity is not on the campaign trail in 2008, but it is occurring within the offices of the House and Senate education committees. The next President will simply be the beneficiary of their 2007 and 2008 work. (Note, however, the distinction between legislative activity and regulatory activity that is discussed below).

Resource:
Edward Kennedy, “How to Fix ‘No Child,’” Washington Post, Columns, January 7, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/06/AR2008010601828.html.
Author: DAD