Senate Passes NCLB Rewrite in 85-12 Landslide, Obama to Sign Thursday
In an update as of 12 p.m. on December 9th, the Senate successfully passed a comprehensive measure to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act. White House Officials have indicated that President Obama will sign it into law before the end of the week.
The Senators voted with a majority of 85-12 to approve a compromise that aims to fix the K-12 education law. The law has been in effect for more than a decade but is widely acknowledged as flawed. The House had previously voted 359-64 in favor of the measure.
Senator Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the education committee, referred to the bill as a Christmas gift for American students. He believes that the implementation of this law will lead to a surge of innovation and excellence in student achievement across the nation.
The bill maintains the requirement for annual testing, but grants states the authority to determine the weight of those tests in school ratings and how to handle failing schools. It also mandates that states take action to address the lowest 5 percent of schools, high schools with graduation rates below two-thirds, and schools with significant achievement gaps.
In a blog post written on Monday, Cecilia Munoz, a presidential advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council, expressed the administration’s urgency for the Senate to quickly send the measure to President Obama for his approval. Munoz praised the bill’s provisions on high academic standards, testing, school accountability, and preschool education.
Before the Senate voted on the bill, there was an extensive debate on Tuesday. Eventually, they voted 84-12 in favor of invoking cloture, which cut off the debate and paved the way for swift passage of the bill on Wednesday morning.
Senator Patty Murray, the leading Democrat on the education committee, also commended the bill’s new provisions for preschool education and its accountability requirements. She believes that true accountability means holding schools up to the standards of equality and justice.
Senator Alexander also highlighted important provisions in the bill, including the ban on federal influence on curriculum and the elimination of the No Child Left Behind’s waiver system. He criticized the waiver system, describing it as requiring governors to seek approval from Washington for changes such as new teacher evaluations or school turnaround models.
The No Child Left Behind Act officially expired in 2007, and prior to this year, efforts to reauthorize it only made it as far as passage in the House. The process of reauthorization began in January and after months of ups and downs, a compromise was finally reached just before Thanksgiving.
Senator Alexander acknowledged the complicated history of the bill in his remarks on Tuesday morning, comparing it to being in a football stadium with 100,000 "fans" who all claim to know the best play to call.
Senator Murray also pointed out that earlier in the year, it was uncertain whether a compromise could be reached. However, both Senators praised each other and their staff for coming together to achieve a result. They emphasized the importance of bipartisan collaboration in Congress and the need for more of it.
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