Obama could push education reform in effort to work with a divided Congress
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Discussion PolicyWednesday, November 3, 2010; 2:24 PM
If President Obama is seeking common ground with Republicans in the next Congress, one major domestic issue seems ripe for deal-making: education.
Obama aides say the administration plans early next year to accelerate its push for a rewrite of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. That effort will face plenty of obstacles from both sides of the aisle in a divided Congress.
But key Republican lawmakers appear receptive to the president's overtures on education reform in part because Obama backs teacher performance pay, charter schools and other innovations that challenge union orthodoxy.
"This is a top, top priority for the president," said Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. "This is and has been a bipartisan issue. We think it transcends ideology."
Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who is in line to become chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said: "We need to fix No Child Left Behind. That is going to be a
