Host of Lawmakers Offer Bills to Revise NCLB

More than 100 measures would take varied approaches on reauthorization.

The leaders of the House education committee issued a highly anticipated draft bill this week to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act. But dozens of other lawmakers beat them to the punch.

Members of Congress have introduced more than 100 bills to amend the main federal law in K-12 education, according to Joel Packer, the chief NCLB lobbyist for the National Education Association. While some of those bills would revise one or more provisions of the 5½-year-old law or add new programs, a handful would go much further by comprehensively reworking its accountability system.

The breadth and diversity of the legislation point to the challenges that confront Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, in crafting reauthorization plans that will be able to garner enough...