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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Tom Harkin Releases No Child Left Behind Overhaul Plan

Tom Harkin Releases No Child Left Behind Overhaul Plan:

Tom Harkin Releases No Child Left Behind Overhaul Plan

Tom Harkin Elementary And Secondary Education Act

Posted: 10/11/11 05:49 PM ET


Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) released his draft of the Elementary and Secondary Achievement Act -- known as "No Child Left Behind" -- on Tuesday, defending its much-criticized rollback of federally mandated targets for student performance as a product of compromise.

"I would have liked to have had performance targets," Harkin said during a Tuesday morning call with reporters. Harkin, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, negotiated for months with Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). "We talked about this for days and weeks on end. Again, this is a compromise."

Harkin said that the bill's federally mandated interventions -- which would require a state to identify five percent of its lowest-performing schools, in