From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: arn-l@interversity.org
To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>, arn2-strategy
<arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [arn-l] Congressional Republicans Turn Agains NCLB
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:26:51 -0400
DOZENS IN GOP TURN AGAINST BUSH'S PRIZED "NO CHILD" ACT
Washington Post -- March 15, 2007
by Jonathan Weisman and Amit R. Paley
More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's
second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could
severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No
Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing
mandates.
For a White House fighting off attacks on its war policy and dealing with a
burgeoning scandal at the Justice Department, the GOP dissidents' move is a
fresh blow on a new front. Among the co-sponsors of the legislation are
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a key supporter of the measure in
2001, and John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Bush's most reliable defender in the
Senate. Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House GOP's chief deputy whip and a
supporter in 2001, has also signed on.
Burson Snyder, a spokesman for Blunt, said that after several meetings with
school administrators and teachers in southwest Missouri, the House
Republican leader turned against the measure he helped pass. Blunt was
convinced that the burdens and red tape of the No Child Left Behind Act are
unacceptably onerous, Snyder said.
Some Republicans said yesterday that a backlash against the law was
inevitable. Many voters in affluent suburban and exurban districts -- GOP
strongholds -- think their schools have been adversely affected by the law.
Once-innovative public schools have increasingly become captive to federal
testing mandates, jettisoning education programs not covered by those
tests, siphoning funds from programs for the talented and gifted, and
discouraging creativity, critics say.
To be sure, key lawmakers would like to reauthorize the law this year.
Ranking Republicans on the House and Senate education committees are
pushing for a renewal. And key Democrats, including Rep. George Miller
(Calif.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), the chairmen of the House and
Senate committees responsible for drafting an updated No Child Left Behind
Act, are strong supporters, although they want large increases in funding
and more emphasis on teacher training and development.
Still, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), author of the new House bill, said
the number of Republicans already backing the new measure exceeds the 41
House Republicans and Democrats who voted against the original legislation
in 2001. Of the House bill's co-sponsors, at least eight voted for the
president's plan six years ago.
"President Bush and I just see education fundamentally differently," said
Hoekstra, a longtime opponent of the law. "The president believes in
empowering bureaucrats in Washington, and I believe in local and parental
control."
As Congress considers reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, the GOP
rebellion could grow, conceded Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (Calif.), the
ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee and a key
ally of the president on the issue. "It was a struggle getting it passed
last time. It'll be even more of a struggle this time," he said.
Under Hoekstra's bill, any state could essentially opt out of No Child Left
Behind after one of two actions. A state could hold a referendum, or two of
three elected entities -- the governor, the legislature and the state's
highest elected education official -- could decide that the state would no
longer abide by the strict rules on testing and the curriculum.
The Senate bill is slightly less permissive, but it would allow a state to
negotiate a "charter" with the federal government to get away from the
law's mandates.
In both cases, the states that opt out would still be eligible for federal
funding, but those states could exempt any education program but special
education from No Child Left Behind strictures.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said that advocates do not intend to repeal the No
Child Left Behind Act. Instead, they want to give states more flexibility
to meet the president's goals of education achievement, he said. As a House
member in 2001, DeMint opposed No Child Left Behind when it first came to a
vote, but he voted for it on final passage.
"So many people are frustrated with the shackles of No Child Left Behind,"
DeMint said. "I don't think anyone argues with measuring what we're doing,
but the fact is, even the education community . . . sees us just testing,
testing, testing, and reshaping the curriculum so we look good."
Parent unrest in places such as Scarsdale, N.Y., and parts of suburban
Michigan could affect members of Congress. Connecticut has sued the
government over the law, while legislatures in Virginia, Colorado and
heavily Republican Utah have moved to supersede it.
Republican lawmakers involved in crafting the new legislation say Education
Secretary Margaret Spellings and other administration officials have moved
in recent days to tamp down dissent within the GOP. Since January,
Spellings has met or spoken with about 40 Republican lawmakers on the
issue, said Katherine McLane, the Education Department's press secretary.
"We've made a lot of progress in the past five years in serving the
children who have traditionally been underserved in our education system,"
McLane said. "Now is not the time to roll back the clock on those
children."
But so far, the administration's efforts have borne little fruit,
Republican critics said.
"Republicans voted for No Child Left Behind holding their noses," said
Michael J. Petrilli, an Education Department official during Bush's first
term who is now a critic of the law. "But now with the president so
politically weak, conservatives can vote their conscience."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402741.html
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