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Politics K-12 kept watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: Federal, States.

Federal

A House Race to Watch

By Alyson Klein — June 20, 2008 1 min read
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There are a lot of freshmen on the House Education and Labor Committee, but only one shows up on The Fix’s latest list of most competitive House races: Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H.

The No Child Left Behind Act was one of Shea-Porter’s favorite targets back in 2006, when she unseated Rep. Jeb Bradley, a Republican. (He wasn’t in Congress in 2001, when the law was passed). Shea-Porter equated the law with President Bush and pledged to work to scrap it. She called it an attempt by “right-wing Republicans” to “undermine our confidence in our public schools” to create a federal private school voucher system.

Bradley is back for a rematch this year. And it will be interesting to see whether Shea-Porter tones down her rhetoric on the school improvement law, now that she’s spent some time with NCLB co-author Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House education panel. (He even visited her district earlier this year to answer educators’ questions about the law).

Shea-Porter’s campaign Web site is in the “coming soon” stages, but the “issues” section on her congressional site offers some pretty bland “views” on education:

Investment in education is an investment in the future of American families and the middle class. A good education leads to good jobs and allows people to provide well for their families. Without a strong, accessible, affordable educational system, the middle class cannot stay strong and help our economy grow

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Definitely a departure from her earlier statements. I’m wondering if that trend will continue. And if Shea-Porter is less stridently anti-NCLB this time around, will that help her or hurt her?

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