Spellings Is Grilled on NCLB, Reading First

Appropriations panels express concerns about department’s efforts.

Washington

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings faced tough questions from Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill this week over her department’s implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and its administration of the Reading First program.

In two hearings on President Bush’s proposed $56 billion Department of Education discretionary budget for fiscal 2008, members of the appropriations subcommittees that oversee education spending said that amount wouldn’t be enough to help their districts meet the demands of the federal school law.

“If the administration is going to get my vote on reauthorization, they’re going to have be a whole lot more flexible in terms of what they mandate on the states, and I’m going to have to be convinced that this time around the administration isn’t going to walk away from its financial commitment,” Rep. David R. Obey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and its education subcommittee, told Secretary...