The most sweeping education reform of the last generation may be headed for the dustbin.
On Wednesday, congressional leaders set in motion the end of No Child Left Behind, the controversial and divisive law that made schools and teachers accountable for performance, gave what some saw as undue influence over local decisions to the federal government, and attempted to bring failing inner city schools up to par.
Its replacement, which is expected to have support of bipartisan majorities in both houses, would significantly transfer power from the federal government to the states, maintaining the requirement of annual testing but allowing states to decide how to remedy failure.
NCLB was “based on good intentions, but also the flawed premise that Washington should decide what kids need to excel in school,” said House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minnesota) at the meeting, which was streamed online.
Over the past several months, an unusual political alignment has emerged, with teacher unions and Republicans holding hands on returning power to the school and the classroom.
The Senate and the House both passed different versions of an NCLB fix in July, with the Senate version viewed as more bipartisan and thus more likely to avoid a presidential veto. Since then, leaders of the two houses have been working to reach a consensus.
“This is most signifciant step toward local control in 25 years,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) at the conference between House and Senate leaders on Wednesday. “Some would like to go further. I am one of those. But I decided, like Ronald Reagan, that I’ll take 80 percent of what I want and fight for the other 20 percent another day.”
Failure nation
Opposition to NCLB centered on its rigid expectations for progress measured by standardized test performance.
When No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2001 by President George W. Bush, with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) standing by his side, it aimed to hold schools accountable using standardized tests and funding pressure, shutting down or overhauling persistent failures.
But the law soon was viewed as unrealistic. By 2014, nearly every school in the country was deemed to be failing, and waivers issued by the Department of Education became the norm. But these waivers came with strings, imposed by the department completely outside of the statute.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), Alexander’s Democratic counterpart on the Senate committee, noted that in her state almost every school is now judged to be a “failing” school based on those measures, with severe financial implications.
Washington refused to pass legislation tying teacher evaluations to standardized test scores, something Education Secretary Arne Duncan had required to grant a waiver from unrealistic NCLB targets.
Without that waiver, the state’s schools lost money targeted to low-income students, leaving the schools with less money to face challenges. In 2014-15, for example, Washington state had to divert $38 million in federal Title I funds for disputed tutoring programs — including some private, for-profit companies — as a punishment for failing to get the waiver.
“That’s the wrong message to send to parents and communities, who deserve more certainty about the quality of education kids receive in their public schools,” Murray said.
Murray said she is pleased that a consensus has been reached to fix the “badly broken law.”
The consensus
While Democrats like Murray chaffed under testing requirements that punished teachers, Republicans were likewise anxious to shift power back to the states, after years of unprecedented federal control under NCLB.