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Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has been barnstorming the nation, trying to salvage President George W. Bush's signature education policy: the vigorously debated No Child Left Behind Act. Too late. The final bell has rung for Mr. Bush and Ms. Spellings. The administration's schools legacy has been sent to detention by congressional inaction. The next president and Congress will shape No Child Left Behind 2.0. But reauthorization should be a top priority - part of a "first 100 days" initiative for the next administration. And it should be a genuine bipartisan effort, one that fixes the current law's many failures but also reinforces, rather than abandons, principles essential to education reform. Ms. Spellings has all but conceded that the best she can do is keep No Child Left Behind on life support. The law completed its six-year run in October. It now is operating under a one-year extension. The technical drop-dead date is the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. ??? The Bush administration has no one to blame but itself. Its bullying approach to policy debate helped doom No Child Left Behind. Congressional Democrats, and more than a few Republicans, pushed back. The result: no compromise and no reauthorization. Serious discussions will resume after the election season. But that doesn't mean the law will come to a screeching halt. Rather, it probably will coast into the new year with federal funding for state education efforts still tied to observance of the law's terms, even though it technically will have expired. Indeed, last week Ms. Spellings proposed new regulations to govern this lame duck period and perhaps influence the next phase of the debate. Some changes would respond to criticisms about how the law is implemented, as in how schools measure student achievement and calculate high school graduation rates. Others changes would bolster some of the law's more controversial provisions, such as so-called "school choice," which enables students of failed schools to shop for alternatives. But as these and other grievances and agenda items are sorted out and settled in the coming year, the public and policymakers should remember that the law has its good points, too. No Child Left Behind's most valuable feature is its insistence on accountability for student progress, enforced with a system of stiff penalties. That can't change. "Standards based" education policy was not new with No Child Left Behind. Former President George H.W. Bush pushed the issue. Former President Bill Clinton also made it a priority. The problem, it turns out, is that prior policies essentially operated under the honor system. State education systems did not come through. They proved themselves to be masterful at avoiding accountability. The lesson: Unless you hold a club to state education leaders' heads and apply it vigorously on occasion, they will treat measurements of academic progress like a game of three-card monte. After the fast shuffle they will win - every time - even if the kids lose. But No Child Left Behind also has proved that accountability alone does not lead to school reform. Much more is required. Michael Dannenberg, a former education advisor to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who was deeply involved in law's enactment, put it this way: "The recipe for the next No Child Left Behind Act is clear: better teachers, better standards, better tests and better funding." Accountability is a two-way street: Federal lawmakers and bureaucrats - no less than principals, teachers, students - must be judged strictly on the improvements and progress they bring to public education. |
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