NCLB Reauthorization Put on Hold in Senate until Next Year

The Senate Education Committee will not take up reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act until early next year, the Associated Press reported on Friday. Committee chairman Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and ranking minority member Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo) said that more time was needed to prepare a Senate bill.

The news agency reported that the House may also delay consideration of a bill; so far the House Education and Labor Committee has released a draft discussion of reauthorization but no bill has been introduced.

In a statement today, AFT president Edward J. McElroy welcomed the news, saying the senators "are right to slow down reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act," and commending them for "insisting that quality, not the calendar, drive this process."

AFT members "have had a consistent message to Congress on NCLB reauthorization: Let's Get It Right," he added. "We know that it is too important to our students, teachers and communities to do otherwise." [Trish Gorman, John See, Associated Press]

November 5, 2007