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Alexander: "We've narrowed the issues" on NCLB

By Preston R. Michelson, Medill News Service
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-AL, attends a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on March 12, 2014 in Washington, D.C. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-AL, attends a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on March 12, 2014 in Washington, D.C. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Sen. Lamar Alexander called for the federal government Tuesday to encourage -- but not mandate -- educational innovation as it updates the "No Child Left Behind" law.

"I hope we are not far from a conclusion from moving from hearings and discussions to marking up a bill," Alexander, R-Tenn., said at a "roundtable" hearing of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs.

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"No Child Left Behind" was enacted in 2002 and has been up for reauthorization -- that is, an update and rewrite -- since 2007. The closest the bill has come to being reauthorized was in July 2013, when it passed the House despite a White House veto threat. Alexander plans to get a bill to the Senate floor by late this month.

"We've narrowed the issues and I think we need to come to a conclusion about it," Alexander said at the hearing. "And, for me, the biggest area of where we need to get a consensus is on accountability."

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This was the 27th hearing in the last six years for the law which gives the federal government a larger role in efforts to improve educational accountability, such as standardized testing and teacher, student and school evaluations.

The unusual set-up for the hearing put senators and witnesses on the same level in a squared desk alignment to encourage more back-and-forth conversation than at a traditional hearing where lawmakers preside from a dais in the front of the room.

"We have so much riding on these tests," said Susan Kessler, executive principal at Hunters Lane High School in Nashville, Tennessee, and a witness at the hearing. "Because of [that], it discourages innovation."

Kessler also said that she believed testing should remain a requirement of "No Child Left Behind," but only as part of a larger number of assessments.

Republicans on the panel want changes to give school districts more flexibility in how they operate under the law.

"If, for some reason, there is federal money for a program we don't need, we lose out," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., a committee member. "I think federal funding is fine, as long as it comes with flexibility."

Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., noted the improvements that have come from the law, and said he was worried about the lack of accountability of Alexander's reauthorization proposal.

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"I think this is all about, at the midpoint, where we're going too far in terms of prescriptive funding," Murphy said. "But there are a lot of things playing out that are not so good."

Alexander, secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, brought with him the application from Tennessee for Title I funding from the federal government, as well as waiver forms. The lengthiness of the documents, in his view, offered proof of the excessive bureaucracy weighing down the law. Forty-two states, the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico are operating under waivers.

The U.S. Department of Education spends about $10 billion on some 90 different programs under the purview of "No Child Left Behind" -- in addition to general funding. Alexander proposed removing some of the programs to give states more flexibility to innovate.

"Are we spending this money in a way that makes it easier or harder for you to innovate and achieve better academic outcomes?" he said.

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