Sen. Bennet Driving Force Behind Law To Replace No Child Left Behind
By Shaun Boyd
DENVER (CBS4) - President Obama signed into law the most sweeping education reform in decades, calling it a "Christmas miracle." It comes after more than a decade of heated debate and it passed Congress with wide bipartisan support.
The law replaces No Child Left Behind, which was passed in 2001 and dramatically expanded the federal government's role in education, ushering in an era of standardized tests and federal sanctions.
Obama praised No Child Left Behind for having the right goals. He said that in practice, it fell short or applied a cookie-cutter approach that failed to produce desired results.
Under the new law, the federal government will shift more decision-making powers back to states. The overhaul maintains statewide reading and math tests -- and reporting requirements that break down results by race and income -- but states would decide what to do with that information.
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, was one of the driving forces behind the new law.
"Getting some of the unfunded requirements out of the way is going to allow people to focus on what needs to be focused on, which is not compliance with Washington D.C., but with what kids need who are sitting in classrooms today - in their only shot at fourth grade - to make sure they're ready to go into 5th grade when they're done this year," said Bennet.
Bennet secured several key provisions in the law that he says reflect the input of Coloradans, whom he thanked in a speech on the Senate floor. Among those provisions, a requirement that states identify and intervene in the bottom five-percent of low performing schools. Again, states would determine how to rate schools - using multiple measures of success - and how to intervene. The law bars the federal government from setting academic benchmarks. It also prohibits federal mandates on teacher evaluations.
There are critics, who worry states will shirk their responsibilities without federal oversight. But, the law passed Congress with wide bipartisan support.
Bennet said, "This gives me a little bit of hope that this place works. It wasn't a lot of months ago that the House was passing one partisan version of the bill with no democratic votes and the Senate couldn't get its act together. We now see because of the leadership in the Senate and the leadership in the House that we now have a product - its eight years overdue - but it got 85 yes votes in the Senate and 359 yes votes in the House. It's a meaningful piece of bipartisan legislation that's going to make a difference. It certainly will relieve a burden from a lot of people in our schools and classrooms. I'm glad we were able to come together at the height of this craziness, at the height of this partisanship and actually get something done for the people who are working so hard in our schools and our classrooms back home."
Bennet also won a provision that encourages states to limit the time students spend on testing, as well as amendments that provide more flexibility for how schools spend federal dollars and more resources for teacher leadership.
"There are lots of innovative ideas in the bill about how to allow districts to better spend money to support teachers. So, for example, teachers don't have to just decide between being a teacher and being a principal but there are steps in between that can be supported with incremental federal dollars to help become a master teacher or lead teacher teams," Bennet said.
In all, the law includes $26 billion for the country's 100,000 public schools, including $250 million a year to expand access to preschool.
"With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal that every child-- regardless of race, gender, background, zip code -- deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they want," President Obama said. "This is a big step in the right direction."
Shaun Boyd is CBS4's political specialist. She's a veteran reporter with more than 25 years of experience. Follow her on Twitter @cbs4shaun.
