Democratic Congress to Step Up Department Oversight

Attention, Bush administration officials: Get ready to raise your right hand and swear under oath.

That’s the message from congressional Democrats, who say the Republican-led Congress has been lax in overseeing federal agencies, including the Department of Education.

The two veteran Democrats preparing to chair the education committees—Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts—say Republican lawmakers have largely looked the other way while the GOP administration has employed questionable practices for distributing federal grants, done little to gauge the effectiveness of tutors hired with federal dollars, and let states slide on some of the teacher-quality requirements of the No...