Optimism from all sides on No Child Left Behind education overhaul

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sen. Joni Ernst is optimistic the Senate will approve a rewrite of No Child Left behind, the nation's main education bill, to scale back the federal government's role in public education and return more power to state and local authorities.

'I do like what I'm seeing in the education bill,” she said Thursday about legislation that is a companion to the Student Success Act that the U.S. House passed Wednesday.

That bill isn't perfect, according to 1st District Republican Rep. Rod Blum of Dubuque, but a step in the right direction.

'I'd rather not have the federal government involved in education at all, but this improves where we're at today,” Blum said. 'It gives the state and local school districts more control than they have today, so that's a good thing.”

That's part of the Senate bill's appeal to Ernst, a first-term Republican.

'I am encouraged by the fact the underlying legislation really does return the power for educating our children to our states, the local authorities, our local school boards, administrators, teachers and parents,” Ernst told Iowa reporters Thursday.

Ernst and Blum met with Iowa school superintendents who told her they appreciate the bipartisan work in the Senate 'and believe it is moving us in the right direction.”

Bettendorf Superintendent Theron Schutte and other superintendents, including Vinton-Shellsburg Superintendent Mary Jo Hainstock, met with the entire Iowa congressional delegation this week. Although they have concerns with both the Senate and House versions of the bill, Schutte said they are optimistic a House-Senate conference committee will craft a bipartisan version that will be signed by President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the House version.

Schutte called the NCLB rewrite 'long overdue.”

'NCLB was a significant overreach in terms of federal directives,” he said. Its 'punishment, sanction and threat” approach was not the best way to get long-term improvement, he said. Instead, it created a 'high-stakes testing situation for students and staff that isn't good for long-term, continuous improvement.”

Blum said the legislation changes the federal designation of 'schools in need of improvement” to give more control locally.

'It eliminates that (designation) basically, and it lets the states and the school districts determine their own best way of improving those schools versus in No Child Left Behind, the federal government tells them what they have to do,” Blum said.

Schutte called the congressional action 'about as encouraging as it has been.”

Chistinia Crippes of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier contributed to this report