Bush to veto any softer No Child law

President Bush yesterday said schools are improving under his much-debated No Child Left Behind Act, which turns six years old today, and he urged Congress to renew it, pledging to veto any bill that weakens the law's accountability for schools.

"I believe this country needs to build upon the successes," Mr. Bush told an assembly at the Horace Greeley Elementary School in Chicago, which he touted as a school that embraced the law's accountability and raised its test scores over the past several years.

"Now is the time for Congress to reauthorize it," he said of the 2002 law, adding, however: "If Congress passes a bill that weakens the accountability system in the No Child Left Behind Act, I will strongly oppose it and veto it."