State and school district officials who have complained for years that an inflexible, overprescriptive federal role in public education is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act seem to have finally gotten their wish: a replacement law that scales back Washington’s K-12 footprint for the first time in more than a quarter-century. Now,...

Washington has given up power? Unheard of. Absurd.Washington relinquished authority? Unthinkable.Why unheard of, absurd, and unthinkable?Tradition!(With apologies, or a bow, to “Fiddler on the Roof”) Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander led the charge to bring about a goal of his that a year ago few, if any, believed could happen....

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander deservedly is receiving a lot of credit for guiding through Congress the education reform measure that replaces the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 during the first year of President George W. Bush. Alexander, the Tennessee Republican, former Secretary of Education and former two-term governor, was one of the primary...

It is the nature of the right these days that a major legislative victory goes almost unnoticed while failure to obtain unrealistic aims (e.g., repeal Obamacare while President Obama is still in office) is analyzed and discussed endlessly. (And inevitably denounced as another betrayal.) This past week, the GOP achieved something extraordinary...

It took a while — 13 years — but the nation’s education law finally has a fix. The Every Student Succeeds Act is signed and sealed. It’s up to the nation’s educators to deliver. This would not have happened without the determination of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander to unlock bureaucratic shackles on teachers, allowing them...

Last year, campaigning for reelection, I said to Tennessee voters, “Give us a Republican majority in the United States Senate and we’ll repeal the federal Common Core mandate and reverse the trend toward a national school board.” This past week, the United States Congress did just that and President Obama signed it. The Wall...

Conservative reformers have had major successes, notably on welfare in 1996. But when a reform doesn’t turn out as hoped, they need to adapt. A case in point is No Child Left Behind, which the GOP Congress is now preparing to leave behind. This week the House plans to debate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which lapsed in...

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,...

WASHINGTON — States would set and enforce their own K-12 academic standards under a massive, bipartisan rewrite of education policy that cleared a crucial vote Thursday. The legislation would produce the most significant changes to elementary and secondary education since President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind...

Two Senate committees are deepening their investigations into a controversial ObamaCare program that has given $2.3 billion to startup insurers, half of which have since failed. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) wrote to the head of the agency overseeing ObamaCare on Monday, demanding to know how federal officials are...

Sen. Lamar Alexander is taking on the National Labor Relations Board again, this time over a ruling that he argues is the biggest attack on business he has seen in years. At issue is a 3-2 decision by the board in August that expanded the definition of what it means to be a “joint employer.” Before the ruling, companies could be held...

October 26, 2015 – Over the weekend President Barack Obama announced that all 100,000 public schools across the nation should limit testing to 2% of a student’s time in the classroom. It’s a recommendation, not a requirement, and it comes in response to a nationwide backlash from teachers, students, and parents who are...

As mem­bers of the Health, Edu­ca­tion, Labor, and Pen­sions Com­mit­tee chat­ted with staff and one an­oth­er, a steady chor­us of “ayes” rang out as the com­mit­tee voted on an edu­ca­tion-re­form bill that had been months in the mak­ing. Com­plet­ing a...

  Sept. 28 (BNA) -- Health information exchange groups widely blame the federal EHR incentive program for making it too difficult for doctors and hospitals to digitally share patient information according to a GAO report made available to Bloomberg BNA Sept. 28. The report, requested by Senate Republicans, was an analysis of interviews with...

Is Congress finally ready to pass legislation that would make it easier for harried parents and students to apply for federal financial aid? Legislators and the Department of Education have been trying for years to radically simplify the standard form, known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa. But every time they cut a few...

The House on Wednesday arguably passed a bill that will have the most impact on the GOP presidential nomination of any this year. That is saying a lot considering the House (and Senate) passed Corker-Menendez (to give Congress an up-or-down vote on any final Iran deal), trade promotion authority, the first significant entitlement reform bill (the...

Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., rose to the Senate floor Wednesday to tell his colleagues that state and local governments know best when it comes to educating students. Alexander was speaking in support of a K-12 education bill that would replace No Child Left Behind. "We need to show some humility and recognize, as...

Senators began work in earnest Wednesday on a bipartisan bill to replace No Child Left Behind by congratulating themselves on finally taking up legislation that is eight years overdue, and then unanimously passing an amendment to support school libraries. That comity is likely to yield to more vigorous debate in the days ahead, but for the moment,...

Pell grants, state aid, modest loans and scholarships put a four-year public institution within the reach of most. Paying for college never is easy, but it’s easier than most people think. Yet some politicians and pundits say students can’t afford a college education. That’s wrong. Most of them can. Public two-year colleges, for...

Next week the United States Senate will begin debate on a bipartisan agreement to fix No Child Left Behind. I negotiated this bill, the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, with the Senate education committee’s Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. We found a consensus about the urgent need to fix this law as well as a remarkable consensus...