Washington Examiner: Fix to No Child Left Behind passes conference committee

Long-awaited changes to the nation's K-12 policy got one huge step closer to completion Thursday.

Legislation that would alter No Child Left Behind passed through a conference committee of House and Senate members, with only one of the 40 committee members opposed: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Having already been through a months-long legislative process, the smooth, two-day conference committee was surely a relief for members and staff on the House and Senate education committees.

The bill would give states more power over what to do with failing schools, although it requires the creation of some state-designed plan to identify and reform failing schools. There would be less federally mandated testing in schools, and the remaining tests would not be tied to any federal consequences. The bill also prohibits the Department of Education from giving states special positive or negative incentives to adopt specific academic standards, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been doing with Common Core using waivers from No Child Left Behind.

The committee's first meeting was Wednesday, a cordial session with committee members giving opening statements. The committee met again Thursday to consider several amendments and consider final passage.

Only one amendment to trim education funding was controversial. The House members agreed to the amendment by one vote, but the Senate members soundly rejected it, keeping it from the final bill. In the end, failure of the amendment did not appear to discourage anyone from supporting the legislation as a whole.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., praised the bipartisan effort as a success for students across the country. "The real winners today are 100,000 public schools, which are attended by 50 million children, where 3.5 million teachers work and who are eager for us to bring some sort of certainty to federal education policy," Alexander said. "This is a law that everybody knows needed to be fixed."

Senate education committee Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash., noted that passage shows Congress still has the ability to reach bipartisan compromises. "This is a proud day for Congress, to show that we can have agreements and disagreements, but at the end of the day we can do the right thing for the people that we represent," Murray said. "That is how we make our country a better place and show the young people in this country who are coming up behind us, democracy can work."

House education committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., also praised the bipartisan effort of the committee members. "The cooperation has been remarkable," Kline said.

Now, the legislation returns to the full House and Senate chambers, which must approve it without amendment to send it to President Obama's desk for his signature. Kline said he expects the House will vote on the bill on Dec. 2.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was the only other presidential candidate on the committee besides Paul. Sanders voted in favor of the bill. Neither Sanders nor Paul were present for the proceedings — their votes were cast by proxy.