Amid Pessimism on NCLB, Talks Continue

Bush, NEA get blamed for lack of progress on reauthorization this year.

When Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., took over as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee in January, he told audiences that reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act was doable. He occasionally appeared with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at his side, promising that such a bill would clear the House this year.

With that goal now unreachable, Rep. Miller sounds pessimistic about the law’s prospects for renewal in 2008, and he is blaming President Bush.

“It is difficult to see how we get a reauthorization bill done in this Congress as long as the president continues to oppose both common-sense improvements to the law and additional education funding,” Rep. Miller said in a statement last month after Mr. Bush threatened to veto a bill appropriating large increases for the NCLB law and other domestic programs.