Republicans have an ambitious plan to rewrite No Child Left Behind this year, reports Maggie Severns on Politico.com. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, now leaders of the Senate and House education committees, are planning an NCLB overhaul at a moment when backlash has reached an all-time high -- and a window has opened to strip the federal role from education. Alexander spent December with lawmakers, including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee's forthcoming ranking member, to forge a strategy that could clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold. The president will be hard pressed to veto even a very conservative bill, though he has signaled he'll take a hard line on preserving annual tests and provisions that focus on equal access to education. Part of the difficulty in rewriting the law is that its most hated parts are deeply intertwined with its civil rights provisions: Its testing requirements, for example, allow the government to spotlight achievement gaps when test results are broken down by race and socioeconomic status. Civil rights groups fear Congress will strip core provisions of the law, but hope the national conversation prompted by recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City will maintain a focus on civil rights.

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Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.