Interest – perhaps transient – gathers in the House for ESEA reauthorization
By Kimberly Beltran
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
A key House panel is set today to consider some 76 amendments to a Republican bill reauthorizing the nation’s top education law – activity that might otherwise suggest that Congress is finally serious about updating the 12-year-old legislation.
Possible additions to H.R. 5 – U.S. Rep. John Kline’s reiteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – include provisions for removing any requirement to carry out teacher evaluations, dropping several testing mandates, providing options to better serve students at risk of dropping out, and improving graduation rates for students with disabilities.
H.R. 5, also known as the Student Success Act, would reauthorize No Child Left Behind – the current version of the ESEA that was adopted in 2001 – and is set for possible floor consideration tomorrow.
With partisan gridlock firmly entrenched in the Capitol, few insiders – if any – expect much to come of the GOP efforts as bigger political battles continue to be waged with the Democratically-controlled Senate and the Obama administration over health care, immigration and even farm subsidies.
The bill, written by Minnesota Republican Kline, also chairman of the House education committee – has received only partisan support thus far.
And, there is an alternate reauthorization proposal, submitted earlier this year by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and chair