State Lawmakers Warn of Federal Intrusion on Education

Obama Education Agenda Called Just as Prescriptive as Bush-era NCLB Efforts

Washington

State lawmakers want Washington policymakers to back off when it comes to public schools.

Amid fanfare around the billions of dollars being delivered to schools through the federal economic-stimulus package, members of the National Conference of State Legislatures are warning that the education agenda being pushed by the Obama administration is shaping up to be just as prescriptive and intrusive as the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act.

The new critique, issued in a report last week, comes five years after the Denver-based NCSL assailed the federal law—the centerpiece of President George W. Bush’s education agenda—as a major encroachment on the states’...