The National Governors Association urged Congress Tuesday to complete its work to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – commonly known as No Child Left Behind in its latest iteration – and get a conferenced bill to the president's desk by the end of this year.
"Governors have long called for the bipartisan reauthorization of ESEA to restore the state-federal partnership," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and chairman of the NGA's Education and Workforce Committee, said in a letter to lawmakers. "We stand ready to work with Congress to complete ESEA reauthorization this year and move on to a state-led law that places every child on a path to success."
The push from the association comes just days after House Speaker John Boehner, one of the original architects of No Child Left Behind, said he planned to resign at the end of October, prompting concerns that his departure could derail congressional efforts on the measure. The Ohio Republican has been integral in helping to nudge the process along in the House, where conservatives in the Republican Party sought to halt it.
In September, Rep. John Kline – a Minnesota Republican and author of the House's overhaul bill – also said he will not seek re-election next year. Combined with the increasingly congested congressional calendar, which includes punting a complex budget negotiation to December, some education policy experts say it's becoming more complicated for conferees to cobble together a negotiated No Child Left Behind rewrite from the bills passed by each chamber earlier this year.
Sen. Lamar Alexander – a Tennessee Republican, chairman of the Senate education committee and co-author of the bipartisan Senate bill – had originally set an end-of-fall deadline for the conference process, but that is now largely acknowledged as an unlikely target.
[READ: John Boehner Leaves a Serious Education Legacy]
The governors association on Tuesday also released a list of priorities for a conferenced bill, plucking provisions from both the House and Senate measures that meet their policy priorities.
Those include the expansion of public preschool, as well as dedicated funding for English learners and for turning around low-performing schools – all of which are part of the Senate bill. The governors also called for a provision contained in the House bill that would collapse a suite of federal grants for teacher preparation and give that money to states to use as they please.
"Every state, school and classroom needs the certainty and fairness of a flexible federal education law that seeks to close achievement gaps and ensure every student receives a strong foundation for success in life," Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, said in the letter. "It is critical that any federal legislation reinforces the principle that accountability and responsibility for K-12 education rests with the states."
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