Overriding a Key Education Law
By SAM DILLON
Published: August 8, 2011
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Arne Duncan, secretary of education, in 2009. He said the No Child Left Behind law was hurting efforts to improve schools.
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Times Topics: No Child Left Behind Act | Arne Duncan
Mr. Duncan told reporters that he was acting because Congress had failed to rewrite the Bush-era law, which he called a “slow-motion train wreck.” He is waiving the law’s proficiency requirements for states that have adopted their own testing and accountability programs and are making other strides toward better schools, he said.
The administration’s plan amounts to the most sweeping use of executive authority to rewrite federal education law since Washington expanded its involvement in education in