A Republican-led measure to rewrite the Bush-era No Child Left Behind act narrowly passed in the House of Representatives yesterday where it will now go to the Senate for deliberation.

"The vote was 218-213, with no Democrats supporting the measure. Twenty-seven Republicans voted against the bill sponsored by Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline," according to the Associated Press.

Teacher unions, Democrats, and the Obama administration have outwardly expressed opposition to the House's measure.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said in a statement that the bill will take a bad law and make it even worse, but he doesn't support the Senate's measure either; he criticizes both for fostering a lack of accountability by scaling back the Department of Education.

"Much like the House bill, the Senate measure also would whittle away the federal government's involvement in public schools," the AP said.

"Both would retain the annual reading and math tests outlined in No Child, but instead would let states - rather than the Education Department - decide how to use the required assessments to measure school and teacher performance." NCLB expired in 2007, and state waivers from certain requirements of the law granted by the Obama administration in 2012 have created a patchwork of waivers being the governing education policy as of right now.

NCLB was the Bush administration's re-authorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and is long overdue for change. If the House, Senate, and Obama administration cannot agree on a re-write, it could be years before any change to NCLB is made.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/09/2015