By KIMBERLY HEFLING, AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
White House threatened Wednesday to veto a Republican bill to overhaul
the widely criticized No Child Left Behind law, calling the effort "a
significant step backwards."
The veto threat came as lawmakers began debate on the measure in the House. A vote is expected on Friday.
Republicans
say the bill would restore local control in schools and stop top-down
education mandates. Democrats say it would allow billions in federal
dollars to flow out without ensuring they will improve student learning.
The
White House said the bill "abdicates the historic federal role in
elementary and secondary education of ensuring the educational progress
of all of America's students, including students from low-income
families, students with disabilities, English learners, and students of
color."
The White House statement was the latest in a series of
veto threats issued by President Barack Obama since both chambers of
Congress went under Republican control last month.
House Speaker
John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the education measure "a good conservative
bill that empowers America and does not empower the bureaucracy here in
Washington."
At a news conference Wednesday, Boehner called
education "the civil right of the 21st century." A measure pushed by
Education Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., would provide states
and local communities greater flexibility over how "federal dollars are
used to educate America's kids," Boehner said.
Kline said education can be the "great equalizer" in America, but only if schools succeed.
About
1 in 5 students drops out of high school, and many who do graduate
enter college or the workforce with subpar education, Kline said. He
decried federal mandates that dictate how to gauge student achievement,
define qualified teachers and spend money.
"We need to place less
faith in the secretary of education and more faith in parents, teachers
and state and local leaders," he said.
The bill maintains annual
federal testing requirements. It consolidates or eliminates many federal
programs, creates a single local grant program and allows public money
to follow low-income children to different public schools. It would also
prohibit the federal education secretary from demanding changes to
state standards or imposing conditions on states in exchange for a
waiver around federal law.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said the bill
would allow states to redirect federal funds away from districts with
high concentrations of poor students.
"In other words, the
low-income areas would get less, the wealthy areas would get more,"
Scott said. "If that's the solution, I wonder what you think the problem
was."
The bipartisan law President George W. Bush signed in 2002
sought to close significant gaps in the achievement of historically
underserved group of students and their more affluent peers. It mandated
annual testing in reading and math for students in grades three to
eight and again in high school. Schools had to show student growth or
face consequences.
No Child Left Behind required that all students
be able to read and do math at grade level by 2014. The Obama
administration in 2012 began allowing waivers around some of the law's
more stringent requirements if schools agreed to certain conditions,
like using college- and career-ready standards such as Common Core.
House
Republican leaders view the bill as a way to show their opposition to
the Obama administration's encouragement of the Common Core state
standards. The standards have been adopted in more than 40 states and
spell out what English and math skills students should master at each
level. They have become a political issue in many states because they
are viewed by critics as a federal effort even though they were
developed by U.S. governors.