Obama could push education reform in effort to work with a divided Congress

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Obama could push education reform in effort to work with a divided Congress

By Nick

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 3, 2010; 2:24 PM

If President Obama is seeking common ground with Republicans in the next

Congress, one major domestic issue seems ripe for deal-making: education.

Obama aides say the administration plans early next year to accelerate its push

for a rewrite of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. That effort will face

plenty of obstacles from both sides of the aisle in a divided Congress.

But key Republican lawmakers appear receptive to the president's overtures on

education reform in part because Obama backs teacher performance pay, charter

schools and other innovations that challenge union orthodoxy.

" This is a top, top priority for the president, " said Melody , director of

the White House Domestic Policy Council. " This is and has been a bipartisan

issue. We think it transcends ideology. "

Rep. Kline (R-Minn.), who is in line to become chairman of the House

Education and Labor Committee, said: " We need to fix No Child Left Behind. That

is going to be a bipartisan effort. "

This year, senior Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate met at

least three times with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other administration

officials to lay the groundwork for revision of the 2002 education law. Obama

proposed a blueprint in March that would give most public schools more leeway in

how they pursue reform - except for those with the lowest test scores - and

eliminate some controversial provisions of the law.

At the same time, the administration awarded $4 billion for home-grown school

improvement efforts in states such as Tennessee - home to Sen. Lamar ,

a Republican leader on education - through the Race to the Top competition.

Those experiments have gone hand in hand with a ground-breaking movement for

national academic standards that has won approval from dozens of states with

support from Democratic and Republican governors.

In general, Republicans did not make education a campaign issue. The House

Republican platform known as " A Pledge to America " omitted any mention of the

word. As a result, the rhetorical temperature on education is cooler than on

taxes, spending, health care, energy and other topics on which emboldened

Republicans are sure to confront the president.

All of that suggests fertile ground for education legislation.

But some analysts doubt that the next Congress, with a robust House Republican

majority and a weakened Democratic Senate majority, will send an education

reform bill to Obama's desk.

" I think we're headed for deadlock for a couple years, " said Jack Jennings,

president of the Center on Education Policy. He participated in several

revisions of federal education law from the 1960s to the 1990s as a Democratic

congressional aide.

Jennings predicted the Republican drive to unseat Obama in 2012 will trump all

else when GOP lawmakers weigh whether to cut a deal with the president. " They

don't want to give him any victories on anything, " Jennings said. " I can't see

them wanting to give him a victory on education. "

The No Child Left Behind law, which President W. Bush signed in January

2002, forced public schools to expand standardized testing in reading and math

and set a goal for all students to become proficient in those subjects by 2014.

The law also established an array of interventions - from student transfer

options to administrative shakeups - for schools that fail to make adequate

yearly progress.

The legislation won overwhelming bipartisan approval from a Congress in some

ways similar to the one that will convene in January. In late 2001, Republicans

controlled the House and Democrats the Senate. That year, Rep. A. Boehner

(R-Ohio) was a key player in reaching accord with Democrats. Now Boehner is in

line to become House speaker.

But there are limits to the parallels of a decade ago. Bush helped persuade his

party to accept a much-expanded federal profile in education. Now Republicans

aim to diminish the federal role. Some even suggested this year that they wanted

to abolish the Education Department - a view that harks back to the party's

position on education before No Child Left Behind. Kline played down the

significance of the " abolish the department " movement.

" In some ways, that's sort of a talking point, " Kline said. " There will be those

who campaigned on that language. I'm not sure they always know what it means. "

But without doubt, lawmakers and analysts say, Republicans will resist some of

Obama's prescriptions for fixing failing schools, especially those that require

personnel turnover in struggling rural schools. And they will balk at increased

education spending, which means that funding to lubricate a reform deal will be

in short supply. That is another contrast with the dynamic on education in 2001

and 2002. Bush presided over a big increase in education spending.

Among Democrats, there is significant debate over Obama's education agenda.

Union leaders, who are closely allied with congressional Democrats, have shown

through recent contract negotiations in the District and other cities across the

country that they are open to teacher performance pay. But they have raised

sharp questions about Race to the Top and other policies that they say give

teachers too many burdens and too little help.

" There are disagreements on how to get where we're going, " Dennis Van Roekel,

president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union,

said of Obama's agenda. " But there's agreement on where we are and where we need

to be. "

Rep. (D-Calif.), who will cede the House education committee

chairmanship to Republicans in January, said prospects for reform have grown as

labor-management divisions over school policy have ebbed. " The old days of

defending the status quo have kind of evaporated over the last two years, "

said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor

and Pensions, said there is momentum to rewrite the law. " There's general

agreement we've got to make some changes, " Harkin said. " We just don't want to

wait anymore. "