School Board Members Hit D.C. to Weigh In On NCLB

Washington

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings knew she had a tough sell in pitching the Bush administration’s proposals to expand charter schools and establish private school vouchers when she addressed a national gathering of school board members here last week.

“I know you’re not going to like that part,” she said, as the crowd, which had been listening politely to her speech, began to murmur its disapproval. “But we simply have to do something in these chronic cases” of schools that continue to struggle academically.

Audience members at the National School Boards Association’s annual federal relations conference began chanting their own recommendations...