As lawmakers engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding the future of the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush urged them to make progress on the bill. The president emphasized the need to reauthorize and strengthen the No Child Left Behind Act in order to ensure that more children are prepared for college. He made these remarks during a ceremony at the White House where he signed a higher education bill that will increase funding for Pell Grants and reduce the costs of federal student loans. While the president expressed his plea, Rep. George Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, stood by his side. Rep. Miller and his committee staff members are still collaborating with House members to develop a bill for NCLB renewal that can garner bipartisan support.
Rep. Miller originally intended for an NCLB bill to advance out of his committee by the end of September, but missed this deadline due to objections from members of Congress, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, and advocacy groups regarding key elements of a discussion draft released by the chairman and the panel’s senior Republican in late August. Rep. Miller has not yet set a new date for his committee to review the bill. In the Senate, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, also missed his goal of introducing an NCLB bill in September. Melissa Wagoner, the chairman’s spokesperson, stated that Sen. Kennedy plans to introduce his reauthorization bill in the upcoming weeks.
To gain enough support for an NCLB bill, Rep. Miller and Sen. Kennedy must address the diverse interests with conflicting objectives. The nearly six-year-old law mandates that states assess student achievement in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and utilize those test scores to determine if schools and districts are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) towards universal proficiency in these subjects. The National Education Association (NEA) has expressed opposition to the draft bill unless Rep. Miller makes substantial changes. The teachers’ union, which consists of 3.2 million members, disagrees with proposals that would require districts to establish merit-based pay programs that reward teachers based on their students’ test score improvements.
NEA President Reg Weaver considers the merit-pay proposal in the draft bill a "deal breaker" and implies that the union will resist any bill that includes such a requirement. However, Secretary Spellings and Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, the senior Republican on the House education committee, support performance-based pay programs and argue that they should be included in the NCLB reauthorization. The issue of testing poses similar challenges. The draft bill from the House committee allows states to introduce additional subject tests and utilize indicators like graduation rates when determining if a school or district meets AYP. Currently, reading and math scores are the primary factors in AYP calculations. The NEA believes that the draft proposal still places too much emphasis on reading and math scores, whereas Secretary Spellings believes that these new measures would dilute the accountability system established by the law.
President Bush and Secretary Spellings point to the latest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released the previous week, as evidence of the positive impact of the NCLB law on student achievement and the narrowing of the achievement gap between minority and white students. One day before signing the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, the president delivered a speech in New York City highlighting the NAEP results as a reason to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law.
"When George sets his mind on accomplishing a task, he possesses the ability to successfully carry it out," declared the president.
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