CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – EDUCATION
Dec. 16, 2011 – 6:14 p.m.
‘No Child’ Rewrite Won’t Happen During 112th Congress, Miller Says
By Lauren Smith, CQ Staff
House Republicans are abandoning bipartisan talks about rewriting the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, according to the top Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee.
“I have communicated to Chairman [John] Kline my disappointment that he has chosen to go the partisan route,” George Miller of California said in a written statement Friday afternoon. “Partisanship means the end to NCLB reform in this Congress.” “Bipartisanship is the only successful way forward,” Miller continued, underscoring that the Senate has already moved a bipartisan bill out of committee. “The House could do the same if it had the political will to do so.”
Aaron Albright, spokesman for Miller, said Friday, “We’ve been told the majority intends to write a partisan bill without us.”
Kline, R-Minn., would not comment Friday on whether he was walking away from the talks permanently, but he said that negotiators have been unable to move forward.
“My colleagues and I also spent months engaged in bipartisan talks on the way forward for reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,” he said through a spokeswoman. “There were several areas where we forged new agreement but others in which we ultimately could not come to a consensus. The urgency to reform the law has not changed.”
The architect of the Senate’s plan, Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa, said in November that it would be difficult to find a path forward for sending the president a bill to overhaul the education law (PL 107-110) without bipartisan legislation from the House. Kline has taken a piecemeal approach to the issue by creating targeted bills designed to fix specific problems. The committee has produced three bills, but only one garnered bipartisan support. That bill (HR 2218), aimed at expanding charter schools and replicating successful ones, passed the House by a vote of 365-54 on Sept. 13. The other two bills, which have not yet been brought to the floor, passed the committee on strict party-line votes. One (HR 1891) would eliminate more than half of the programs overseen by the Education Department, and the other (HR 2445) would give states and local school districts nearly 100 percent flexibility in how they use federal dollars. Committee leaders have yet to introduce bills that would tackle the two most nettlesome parts of No Child Left Behind: the school accountability system and teacher evaluations.
With 11 freshman Republicans — many of whom sympathize with the tea party — on the House committee, Kline could have a difficult time bridging partisan differences.
‘Do the Right Thing for Kids’
The Senate bill faces uncertain prospects if and when it is brought to the floor, as some Republicans who supported it in committee want to see significant changes before they vote for it again. Without a similar bipartisan effort in the House, Harkin and Miller agreed, Congress has little chance of overhauling the law anytime soon.
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, urged Kline to reconsider on Friday.
“Without a bipartisan bill coming out of the House, I believe it would be difficult to find a path forward that will draw the support we need from both sides of the aisle to be able to send a final bill to the president,” he said. “Given that the HELP Committee was able to come to bipartisan agreement on a strong bill to reauthorize [NCLB], I sincerely hope Chairman Kline will reconsider his decision to not pursue a bipartisan bill.
“There is widespread agreement that No Child Left Behind needs to be fixed for the sake of our nation’s children, and I hope we will not abandon the longstanding tradition of bipartisanship when it comes to the education of our kids,” he said.
The administration echoed Harkin’s sentiments about the parties pursuing a rewrite together.
“Education reform requires all of us — parents, teachers, students and elected officials from both sides of the aisle — to come together and do the right thing for kids,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday. “Our children only have one shot at a good education, so it’s disappointing to hear that some members of Congress may let partisan politics stand in the way.”
Source: CQ Today Online News
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