Back when President Bush and top Democrats were declaring NCLB reauthorization to be a top priority, who would have thought that the most important NCLB bill introduced in this Congress would be by a low-profile House member who doesn’t sit on an education committee? Things may be shaping up that way.
This week, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., introduced H.R. 6239, the NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act. H.R. 6239 would suspend NCLB’s accountability measures for one year or until Congress reauthorizes the law. In other words, in the 2007-08 school year, states wouldn’t publish AYP results . Rep. Timothy J. Walz, D-Minn., a freshman who is a former teacher, is co-sponsoring the bill.
Graves (with the support of the National School Boards Association and the National Education Association) is working to get the bill attached to the House’s fiscal 2009 appropriations bill. That bill is scheduled for subcommittee markup next week. Civil rights groups are opposed to the bill and will say so later today, I hear.
