ATLANTA – The Obama administration unveiled its plan Saturday to radically change his predecessor’s No Child Left Behind education law in hopes of replacing an accountability system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of U.S. schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states.
The changes would dismantle the 2002 law championed by President George W. Bush, moving away from punishing schools that do not meet benchmarks and instead focusing on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. The blueprint calls for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency – the focus of the current law.
“Unless we take action – unless we step up – there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential,” Obama said during his weekly video address Saturday. “I don’t accept that future for them. And I don’t accept that future for the United States of America.”
The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said the No Child Left Behind law encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects.
And, for the first time in the law’s history, the White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from formula-based funding.
The blueprint goes before the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday as Obama pushes Congress to reauthorize the education law this year, a time-consuming task that some observers say will be difficult. Committee Chairman George Miller, a Democrat from California, praised Obama’s plan.
“This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation,” Miller said in a prepared statement.
