Many had hoped that the long overdue rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act would be ready by the end of the year- but the unanticipated resignation of one of the key players in pushing for the legislation, Speaker of the House John Boehner, might make the already unlikely goal impossible. 

Charles Barone, a top education aide during NCLB negotiations,told Education Week that "Boehner's departure makes passing an NCLB rewrite during this Congress highly unlikely because of the difficulty of getting a final product over the finish line that also satisfies the same Republicans who pushed for Boehner's ouster."

"..as the House and Senate are conferencing to reconcile the NCLB reauthorization bills passed in each chamber, it's unclear whether a new speaker will continue to prioritize the legislation, especially given how difficult it was to shepherd a Republican-backed version through the House," said U.S. News.

Since Boehner announced his resignation, those in education are at attention for any word on what might be next for the rewrite; since NCLB is long expired, many states are operating under a patchwork of waivers in the meantime.

Some predict that the tea party wing of the GOP caucus in the wake of Boehner's resignation will be more likely "to reject a conferenced bill, which is expected to be further to the left than the one that narrowly passed in July."

But one expert told U.S. News that she thinks other Republican priorities will in fact be a good thing for the NCLB rewrite- helping it to ultimately pass without a squabble of derailment proportions.

Tamara Hiler, education policy adviser at Third Way said that "[c]ompared to other Republican priorities, including defunding Planned Parenthood and finding a way to derail the Iran nuclear agreement, she says, the education bill is largely flying under the radar," the article said.

Read more here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

09/29/2015