President Bush on Monday called on Congress to renew his signature domestic initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act, but Democrats demanded numerous changes to the five-year-old law.
“I am proud of this piece of legislation,” Bush told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it’s made an enormous difference, particularly in the lives of some of our poorer students.”
The remarks came as Bush was wrapping up a meeting with lawmakers from both parties, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, an enthusiastic supporter of the bill when it was signed on Jan. 8, 2002. But the Massachusetts Democrat now is deeply critical of many provisions in the legislation, which is up for renewal this year.
After meeting with the president, Kennedy issued a laundry list of complaints about the law, which allows students to transfer out of failing schools and into schools that meet federal standards.
“The Bush administration’s regulations for carrying out public school choice recklessly have directed school districts to ignore health and safety codes and unnecessarily crowded students into schools,” Kennedy wrote in what he called the “No Child Left Behind Improvement Act.”
Bush expressed a willingness to revise the law.
“In our discussions today, we’ve all agreed to work together to address some of the major concerns that some people have on this piece of legislation, without weakening the essence of the bill, and get a piece of legislation done,” he said.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, in an interview with The Examiner, expressed confidence that the law would be renewed this year, despite the Democratic takeover of Congress.
“We’ve had strong bipartisan support for this law for the last five years,” she said. “It’s on everybody’s list of one of the things that could get done this year.”
