Governors, Teachers Unions to Congress: Fix NCLB
The push comes just days after Speaker John Boehner, an original architect of NCLB, said he plans to resign.
Governors and major education groups urged Congress Tuesday to complete its work to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – commonly known as No Child Left Behind in its latest iteration – and get a conferenced bill to the president's desk by the end of this year.
"Governors have long called for the bipartisan reauthorization of ESEA to restore the state-federal partnership," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association's Education and Workforce Committee, said in a letter to lawmakers. "We stand ready to work with Congress to complete ESEA reauthorization this year and move on to a state-led law that places every child on a path to success."
The two-pronged push from the association and education groups – including the two national teachers unions – comes just days after House Speaker John Boehner, one of the original architects of No Child Left Behind, said he planned to resign at the end of October, prompting concerns that his departure could derail congressional efforts on the measure. The Ohio Republican has been integral in helping to nudge the process along in the House, where conservatives in the Republican Party sought to halt it.
In September, Rep. John Kline – a Minnesota Republican and author of the House's overhaul bill – also said he will not seek re-election next year. Combined with the increasingly congested congressional calendar, which includespunting a complex budget negotiation to December, some education policy experts say it's becoming more complicated for conferees to cobble together a negotiated No Child Left Behind rewrite from the bills passed by each chamber earlier this year.
"We know that Congress has a busy agenda this fall, but Congress must not lose focus on the needs of our nation's students," the 3 million-member National Education Association, 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers and eight other education groups wrote in a letter Tuesday to members of the House and Senate education committees. "ESEA reauthorization cannot wait."
The education organizations also include the Council of Chief State School Officers and the School National Governors Association, Teachers Unions to Congress: Finish Work on NCLB - US News: