Now Senate education chair, Alexander announces plan to ‘fix’ No Child Left Behind

“During the last six years, this committee has held 24 hearings and reported two bills to the Senate floor to fix the law’s problems. We should be able to finish our work within the first few weeks of 2015 so the full Senate can act.” —Lamar Alexander

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander has announced a plan to fix the No Child Left Behind law, wrapping up six years of committee work and sending a bill to the Senate floor within the first few weeks of 2015, the senator’s office said Tuesday.

Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, announced his plan on the Senate floor, a press release said.

“No Child Left Behind has become unworkable—and fixing this law, which expired over seven years ago, will be the first item on the agenda for the Senate education committee,” Alexander said. “I look forward to input from all sides on this proposal as we move forward with a bipartisan process that will keep the best portions of the law, while restoring responsibility to states and local communities and ensuring that all 50 million students in our nation’s 100,000 public schools can succeed.”

Alexander also released a staff discussion draft of his bill to fix the problems with No Child Left Behind, or NCLB, to begin discussion with his Senate colleagues, and to solicit public feedback on the proposed draft.

Alexander announced the committee’s first hearing this year on No Child Left Behind, and he said he would hold more hearings after conferring with Ranking Member Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. He also announced bipartisan meetings in the Senate education committee beginning this week to discuss the chairman’s discussion draft, consider changes and improvements, identify areas of agreement, and discuss options to proceed.

Alexander asked for input from the public on his staff discussion draft by Monday, February 2, at: FixingNCLB@help.senate.gov. Comments will be shared with all members of the Senate HELP Committee, the press release said.

The first hearing will be scheduled as follows:

• Wednesday, January 21—“Fixing No Child Left Behind: Testing and Accountability”

See a video of the senator’s remarks here.

Click here to access the discussion draft.