Trouble lurking ahead for Obama's education focus

“There’s room to make cuts, and I think pretty substantial cuts, that would enable us to use some of those savings on things we think work,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California conservative who’s the new chairman of a House Education and Workforce subcommittee. “I like the piecemeal approach. … If you do it in bite-size pieces, you can tell what needs to be tweaked as you go.”

No Child Left Behind would not have passed without President George W. Bush’s strong advocacy in the first year of his administration. Since then, many lawmakers have concluded that the law failed to meet its overall objectives of raising student achievement. Instead, they say, it has meant relying too much on test results and arbitrary measurements that don’t help students learn.

The Obama administration produced a framework for a new law last year. It would ease many testing requirements, put a new focus on teacher performance and the lowest-performing schools, and replace proficiency requirements with loftier goals of boosting college graduation rates.

Duncan has worked with lawmakers of both parties over the past two years to lay the groundwork for a rewrite. Republican and Democratic leaders of the education committees in the House and Senate say they want to move forward. “Everyone agrees this law needs reform,” said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House committee.

Obama focused on health care at the start of his presidency, when Democrats controlled Congress. Now Republicans control the House and are more powerful in the Senate. It’s not clear whether an education overhaul ranks on their list of priorities, even if committee leaders support it.

The “Pledge to America,” which the House GOP released before taking power in the November elections, never mentions the education. Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Boehner’s focus is on “addressing the top priorities of the American people–creating jobs and cutting spending.

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