Amid Deluge of Waivers, Goals of No Child Left Behind Are Questioned
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: February 9, 2013
As Congress contemplates rewriting No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature education law, legislators will tussle over a vision of how the federal government should hold states and schools accountable for students’ academic progress.
Mark Humphrey/Associated Press
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, says the states should be allowed to set their own public school policies.
At a Senate education committee hearing on Thursday to discusswaivers to states on some provisions of the law, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal government to get out of the way.
“We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State. “Why do I have to come from the mountains of Tennessee to tell New York that’s good for you? Why can’t you decide that for yourself?”
Dr. King argued that the federal government needed to set “a few clear, bright-line