No Child Left Behind Rewrite Debated In The House, But Bill Has No Future
Posted: 07/18/2013 7:22 pm EDT
Possibly seeking to combat the perception that they're unproductive and obstructionist, House Republicans convened about six hours of debate Thursday on an education bill that has almost no chance of being signed into law.
The House discussed the Student Success Act, a Republican-written update to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB is a bipartisan bill that was supported by President George W. Bush, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) when it was passed in 2001.
While NCLB dramatically expanded the federal government's role in the nation's public schools, the Student Success Act, written by House Education Committee Chair Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), would dramatically constrict it. The bill pulls back from the annual performance goals required by NCLB and consolidates federal programs dedicated to English-language learners and neglected children into a program devoted to helping schools with low-income students.
Deceasing the focus on annual performance goals has brought together a cast of strange bedfellows, with teachers' unions, civil rights groups and business groupscoming together to decry Kline's bill.
NCLB expired in 2007, but is still standing because an alternative hasn't been passed. Thursday's debate represents the first time either the House or Senate has discussed it