WASHINGTON – A House committee has passed a pair of Republican-backed bills that would update the No Child Left Behind education law by shifting a significant amount of control over schools out of the federal government's hands.
The measures would have states develop their own systems to identify low-performing schools and turn them around. No Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee supported the plan, and it's unlikely to pass the full Congress without bipartisan support. The vote was 23-16 on each bill.
Earlier this month, President Barack Obama freed 11 states from some of the George W. Bush-era law's most stringent mandates. To get waivers, states had to submit plans and get the administration's approval. The waivers are considered a stopgap measure until Congress acts.
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