ESEA in the House

[Monty Neill <monty@fairtest.org>]

According to this, the House Ed Comm will introduce two Republican-only 
bills in early Feb, on on teacher "effectiveness," the other on 
accountability. But this writer thinks it unlikely a bill will pass this 
year.

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS -- EDUCATION
Dec. 26, 2011 -- 11:21 a.m.

*Kline Aims for Broad --- but Not Necessarily Bipartisan --- 'No Child' 
Rewrite*

By Lauren Smith, CQ Staff

The top Republican on the House education committee plans to change his 
approach to rewriting the federal education law known as No Child Left 
Behind by moving forward without panel Democrats and by putting aside 
his piecemeal legislative strategy.

Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline 
<http://www.cq.com/person/3421> of Minnesota said earlier this week that 
the two sides had stopped making progress together on overhauling the 
law (PL 107-110 <http://www.cq.com/law/107/110>) as part of a 
reauthorization and that continuing the talks would only stall the 
process further.

"We were continuing to be mired, and I think it's important to move 
legislation forward," he said in an interview. "We've indicated that 
while we'd certainly like to keep talking, that we're going to move 
forward with this thing and produce language whether or not they're 
engaged."

Rep. George Miller <http://www.cq.com/person/34> of California, the top 
Democrat on the committee, slammed Kline last week for abandoning 
bipartisan negotiations on overhauling the law. Miller argued that 
Kline's decision would prevent the law from being rewritten in the 112th 
Congress.

Kline argued it would be better to offer partisan legislation than no 
legislation at all.

"George Miller <http://www.cq.com/person/34> and I have come very close 
on a number of occasions to agreeing, but there have been some 
provisions that they continue to push that we can't support and vice 
versa," Kline said. "So we can continue to do this in January, February, 
March and April and not bring anything up. But we thought it would be 
better to go ahead and produce language."

*Comprehensive Legislation*

The panel's output has not been particularly bipartisan to this point.

Kline has been taking a piecemeal approach to overhauling the law, and 
the committee has passed three bills that would expand charters schools 
(HR 2218 <http://www.cq.com/bill/112/HR2218>), consolidate more than 
half of the program under the Education Department (HR 1891 
<http://www.cq.com/bill/112/HR1891>), and give states and school 
districts 100 percent flexibility in how they use federal dollars (HR 
2445 <http://www.cq.com/bill/112/HR2445>).

Only the charter school bill garnered bipartisan support and passed the 
full House. The other two were approved by the committee on party-line 
votes and have yet to be taken up on the House floor.

According to Kline, the committee will introduce two additional pieces 
of legislation in early February that would revamp the current 
accountability system and address teacher effectiveness, the two most 
divisive provisions in No Child Left Behind. In writing those bills, 
Kline plans to include language from the three committee-approved bills. 
He did not offer specifics, but he said his aim is to overhaul the law 
in a more comprehensive way.

"You'll see a more comprehensive look at this when we bring up the next 
bill," he said, adding that it would be structurally similar to the 
868-page bipartisan draft bill approved by the Senate Health, Education, 
Labor and Pensions Committee in October. "Some of the earlier language 
will be folded in, and it will look a whole lot more comprehensive 
moving forward."

A spokesman for Miller called on Kline to resume negotiations to write a 
broad bill.

"At the end of the day, if Chairman Kline would like to attempt to draft 
a comprehensive, bipartisan bill, we are happy to talk," spokesman Aaron 
Albright said. "However, we haven't heard from the majority since they 
notified us that they were working on a partisan bill."

*New Due Date: 2013*

Although a more comprehensive bill would be structurally easier to 
conference with the Senate's bill than piecemeal legislation, it does 
not mean the outcome will be bipartisan.

And if it isn't bipartisan, education policy experts said, it's not 
likely to reach the president's desk.

"That's not going to be signed into law," said Joel Packer, an education 
lobbyist for the Raben Group, a liberal lobbying and public affairs 
firm. "It could potentially even be one more factor as to why the Senate 
never takes up the [Senate] bill. If they don't see a likely path 
forward, that's one more reason why leader Harry Reid 
<http://www.cq.com/person/337> may not bring up the Senate bill at all."

Two months have passed since the Senate panel approved its bill, but the 
measure has not been officially reported out of committee with a number. 
The hold up is not typical, especially for major pieces of legislation. 
Harkin and ranking Republican Michael B. Enzi 
<http://www.cq.com/person/541> of Wyoming probably are having trouble 
drumming up support for a bill that walks such a fine line between 
Democratic and Republican priorities. Without a clear path forward in 
the House, committee leaders may not want it brought to the floor at all.

If that happens, renewed efforts to negotiate a reauthorization would 
not likely begin until January 2013, with a class of new members --- and 
potentially a new president --- whose priorities may not include 
rewriting the law or tackling education issues at all.

"There was an expectation that this was low-hanging fruit because 
education is typically a place where Congress can find common ground," 
said Jennifer Cohen, education policy expert at the New America 
Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. "But this dashes all those hopes 
to me. We won't see No Child reauthorized before the presidential election."

Source: *CQ Today Online News*

//Round-the-clock coverage of news from Capitol Hill.////

© 2011 CQ Roll Call All Rights Reserved.


--
Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, 
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate 
to FairTest: https://secure.entango.com/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk