Reactions to Bush Call for NCLB Renewal

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

FairTest put out the following brief response to President Bush's 
State-of-the-Union call for NCLB renewal. Pasted in below our release is 
a report on Congressional reaction.


FairTest
National Center for Fair & Open Testing

for further information:
Dr. Monty Neill (617) 864-4810
or Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773


for immediate release, Monday, January 28, 2008
REACTION TO PRES. BUSH’S STATE-OF-THE-UNION CALL FOR
"NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" RENEWAL

“President Bush’s diehard commitment to renewing the flawed ‘No Child 
Left Behind’ (NCLB) law reflects a triumph of blind faith over classroom 
realities,” said Dr. Monty Neill, Executive Director of the National 
Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). “The truth is that the pace 
of educational improvement across the country has slowed since NCLB 
passed, according to the federal government’s own National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP). NCLB is forcing many schools to become test 
prep factories. That has not improved school quality."
FairTest initiated the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB, a set of 
principles for overhauling the federal law which has been signed by 142 
national education, civil rights, religious, parent, disability, civic 
and labor groups. FairTest also facilitates the Forum on Educational 
Assessment, which works to implement the Joint Statement.
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The Joint Statement and other materials concerning NCLB, including 
FairTest’s six-year “Report Card” on the law’s impact, are online at: 
http://www.fairtest.org

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BUSH CALL FOR "NO CHILD" REAUATHORIZATION MEETS SKEPTICAL REACTION

CQ Today Online -- January 28, 2008
by Libby George

President Bush’s passionate call for reauthorization of his signature 
domestic policy achievement — the 2002 education overhaul known as No 
Child Left Behind — may ring hollow to lawmakers badly divided over how 
to proceed.

Renewal of the law (PL 107-110) is a priority not only for the 
president, but for the two Democratic committee chairman he needs to 
help him. Even so, a presidential push without concessions seems 
unlikely to break a stalemate that finds teachers unions, school 
administrators and business groups — as well as lawmakers — with 
conflicting demands for a renewal.

“Six years ago, we came together to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, 
and today no one can deny its results,” Bush said in his State of the 
Union address Monday. “Now we must work together to increase 
accountability, add flexibilities for states and districts, reduce the 
number of high school dropouts and provide extra help for struggling 
schools.”

Time is running out. Bush is a lame duck and lawmakers are already 
shifting into campaign mode. Two members of the Senate Health, 
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee locked in a heated battle for 
the Democratic presidential nomination — Hilary Rodham Clinton of New 
York and Barack Obama of Illinois — have had little good to say about 
the law. In that atmosphere, representatives of some educational 
interest groups said the president’s remarks will not help.

“Its just the same thing repackaged for this year,” said Mary Kusler, 
assistant director of government relations for the American Association 
of School Administrators. “It’s all the same.”

Last year, an effort by House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller 
, D-Calif., to renew the law buckled under the weight of complicated 
political alliances and scathing reviews. And despite the commitment of 
the Senate panel’s chairman, Edward Kennedy , D-Mass., to move a 
renewal, prospects in the Senate are just as treacherous.

Bush’s refusal to sign any bill that “weakens” the law by increasing the 
number of indicators used to measure school progress limits what Kennedy 
and Miller might do to appease the various factions.

“It’s baffling that the president has finally gained a sense of urgency 
for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind,” said Miller 
spokeswoman Rachel Racusen. “For the last year, our committee has been 
working hard to improve and reauthorize the law, and the president has 
had many opportunities to work with us, but he has refused.”

In the Senate, some are equally skeptical.

“It’s a stretch to think we can do (No Child Left Behind) this year,” 
said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill.