Major rewrite of education law clears crucial hurdle

WASHINGTON — States would set and enforce their own K-12 academic standards under a massive, bipartisan rewrite of education policy that cleared a crucial vote Thursday.

The legislation would produce the most significant changes to elementary and secondary education since President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2001, giving the federal government significant power over school reforms.

Thursday's 39-1 conference committee vote approving an outline of the rewrite sets up final votes in the House and Senate early next month. The lone "no" vote came from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

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The White House has not yet taken a position on the compromise, which was crafted from two separate bills that passed the House and Senate earlier this year.

The new proposal maintains the federal regimen of 17 reading, math and science tests in grades 3 through 12 but leaves it to states to decide how to use those scores to hold schools accountable.

Advocates hailed Thursday's vote as a sign that bipartisanship is still possible on Capitol Hill, even on something as controversial as public education.

“The real winners are the 100,000 public schools, 50 million schoolchildren, and 3.5 million teachers who are eager to bring some sort of certainty to federal education policy,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate education committee and a former U.S. Education secretary . “Everybody knows this needed to be fixed.”

No Child Left Behind was praised for raising expectations and setting high standards, but it fell out of favor with educators and parents for its intense focus on testing and heavy-handed accountability rules.

Democrats and Republicans generally agreed the replacement bill should shift some power away from Washington and back to local school districts. But there were intense debates over how funding for poor students should be distributed, school choice, and how academic achievement gaps facing lower-income and minority children should be measured and addressed.

In the end, conference committee members decided not to include controversial proposals to change the formula for dividing Title I money among poor students, or to allow the use of federal dollars to help students attend private school. Alexander, for example, was unable to win approval for redirecting federal money into $2,100 scholarships for lower-income children to attend the school of their choice.

A key Democrat on the conference committee, Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, said the proposal "ensures that when achievement gaps are found, meaningful action will be taken to intervene and support the needs of students."

Lawmakers said they hope the legislation, if signed into law, will encourage state and local school officials to abandon the extra tests they say were added during a federal overemphasis on test scores.

“The pressure … led districts to increase the amount of testing,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, top Democrat on the Senate education committee. “This framework makes important changes to lower the stakes and reduce the pressure.”

Under the new K-12 law, school districts identified by their states as under-performing would be eligible for federal grants to make improvements, but the federal government wouldn't prescribe which reforms are necessary.

The deal also would bar the U.S. Education Department from requiring states to adopt Common Core academic standards in exchange for federal grants.

The full text of the bill will be available Nov. 30, and the House is expected to vote the first week of December, said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House education committee.

Kline said Congress has a chance “to replace a failed approach to education with a new approach that will reduce the federal role, restore local control, and empower parents.”

Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, expressed appreciation for the bipartisan deal but said there's still work to be done “to ensure that we produce a final bill that, when signed by the president, gives every student the opportunity, support, tools, and time to learn.”