The first meeting of a conference committee to fix No Child Left Behind went smoothly Wednesday. Few of the senators and congressmen in attendance registered staunch opposition to the compromise bill.
The Senate bill would give states more power over what to do with failing schools, although some state-designed plan to identify and reform failing schools is required. The amount of federally-required testing in schools would fall, and the remaining tests won’t be tied to any federal consequences. The bill also prohibits the Department of Education from encouraging states to adopt specific academic standards, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been doing with Common Core using waivers from No Child Left Behind.
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“[No Child Left Behind] was based on good intentions, but it was also based on the flawed premise that Washington should decide what students need to excel in school,” Congressman John Kline, R-Minn., said. Kline chairs the House education committee. “Parents, teachers and superintendents have been telling us for years that this approach isn’t working.” Kline was nominated by Senate education committee chair Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., to serve as the conference committee’s chair. The nomination was approved without opposition.
Alexander made the case that, despite minor differences, the major reforms in the House and Senate bills were similar.
“Both end the waivers through which the U.S. Department of Education has become, in effect, a national school board for more than 80,000 schools in 42 states,” Alexander said. “Both end the federal Common Core mandate. Both move decisions about whether schools and teachers are succeeding or failing out of Washington, D.C., and back to states and communities and classroom teachers where those decisions belong.”
Alexander believes the committee will find solutions that will pass both the House and the Senate, and eventually be signed into law by President Obama.
Alexander took a veiled shot at conservative opponents of the bill. He said that he, too, would rather pass a more conservative bill, but that the bill on the table represents an acceptable step forward. “I have decided, like a president named Reagan once advised, that I will take 80 percent of what I want and fight for the other 20 percent on another day. Besides, if I were to vote no, I would be voting to leave in place the federal Common Core mandate, the national school board and the waivers in 42 states,” Alexander said. He cited his Scholarship for Kids proposal as something that he wanted included but that failed to pass the Senate’s amendment process.
Another conservative complaint comes on early childhood education efforts in the bill. “I do not think the federal government has made a solid effort to consolidate the over 40 funding streams for early childhood education,” Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said. “That said, I’m glad to see that a consolidation and coordination report … must be used to inform early childhood activities.”
Democrats have their own problems with the bill. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., says his concerns over bullying are not addressed. “One area where we didn’t make progress … that’s the issue of bullying, the ultimate betrayal of a child when they’re the subject of bullying in school for a wide variety of reasons,” Casey said. “We have a long, long way to go as a nation in confronting bullying.”
Despite some complaints, those in attendance spoke highly of the proposed reforms.
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The Senate version passed in July with 81 votes in favor and 17 opposed, two of which were by Democrats. The House version passed in July on a much closer vote, with 218 in favor and 213 against. Twenty-seven Republicans joined all 186 Democrats in opposing the bill.
The committee will meet again on Thursday morning to consider amendments to the legislation.
Presidential candidates Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are members of the conference committee, but were not in attendance.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
