Committee Begins Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind

On May 25, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved, 23-16, H.R. 1891, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, a bill to repeal education programs in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (P.L. 107-110). The bill is the first of what is expected to be a series of bills to reauthorize NCLB this year.

Sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the bill would repeal the authorizations for 42 education programs within NCLB, including:

• The Even Start Family Literacy program;
• Grants to educate teachers, staff, and students about domestic violence issues;
• The Early Reading First program;
• The Women’s Educational Equity Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-110); and
• Grants for early childhood educator professional development.

During consideration of the bill, the committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) to strike language from the bill to repeal authorizations for parental assistance and family information centers, 20-19.

The committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Platts to strike language from the bill to repeal the Even Start Family Literacy program, 18-21.