The Herald: DeMint bill would overhaul 'No Child Left Behind'

DeMint bill would overhaul 'No Child Left Behind'
By James Rosen · McClatchy Newspapers - Updated 03/15/07 - 12:57 AM
WASHINGTON -- Sens. Jim DeMint and John Cornyn will introduce legislation Thursday that would overhaul the No Child Left Behind law by eliminating mandatory testing for children in public schools.
DeMint, R-S.C., and Cornyn, R-Texas, are strong supporters of Bush, but their bill would essentially gut one of the major legislative achievements of his presidency.

"We've got outraged parents, teachers, governors from both parties saying we need changes in this law," DeMint said Wednesday in an interview.

"If all we do is pile on another level of federal control, the bottom line is we're losing ground in the international market," he said. "We are not preparing our children to compete in a global economy."

The senators' new measure, sponsored in the House by Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, would allow states to opt out of the mandatory testing requirements by signing a five-year contract with the U.S. secretary of education.

Each state's plan would have to contain concrete ways of measuring achievement and holding schools accountable for meeting the standards.

DeMint compared the approach to the charter schools movement, which has enabled local school districts to use alternative approaches to teaching.

Congress passed the No Child Left Behind measure to great fanfare in 2002. Congress must reauthorize it by this summer.

Bush has repeatedly said his signature education law is doing just that by requiring public school accountability based on mandatory tests on core academic subjects at three grade levels.

DeMint, though, said the law's effects have been counterproductive in many ways.

"Teachers are spending millions of hours complying with No Child Left Behind," DeMint said. "Teachers say the whole thing is focused on tests and paperwork, and very little on actual teaching."

Though DeMint described his measure as building on No Child Left Behind, it clearly represents a broad rejection of the law

A question-and-answer sheet circulated by DeMint and Cornyn says, "No Child Left Behind has increased the paperwork burden of federal education policy by 6.6 million hours (2006)."

The DeMint-Cornyn bill "would provide an alternative to the status quo of No Child Left Behind, which has left many states and localities upset about the degree of federal intervention in their education policymaking," the document says.

Cornyn's sponsorship of the measure is especially significant because he is one of Bush's strongest allies in Congress and a fellow Texan who rarely if ever bucks the president.




All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.