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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota will gain more control over its schools if Congress approves a rewrite of the federal No Child Left Behind law, according to two Minnesota lawmakers who helped forge the deal.
U.S. Rep. John Kline recently led a bipartisan team of congressional negotiators that put the finishing touches on a compromise to replace the school funding and accountability act. The Minnesota Republican told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for a story published Sunday (http://bit.ly/1jrGHNx ) that it would eliminate tough federal mandates and penalties, and allow states to develop accountability systems that best fit their local needs.
"Those are huge changes," Kline said in an interview. "We fundamentally shift that power and control from Washington, D.C., to the states."
Signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, No Child Left Behind provides about $14 billion a year to schools that serve mostly low-income students while using high-stakes testing to try to ensure equal access to quality education. The overhaul would maintain required annual proficiency tests in math and reading, Kline said, but it would allow states to decide what tests to administer and how they use the test results to hold schools and teachers accountable. States would still have to intervene with low-performing schools, but the federal government would be barred from dictating how.
"No one would call this a perfect bill," said Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who joined Kline on the conference committee. "But I think it is an improvement."
Supporters of annual testing and the detailed information about student proficiency it provides say that the exams in Minnesota exposed one of the nation's most persistent achievement gaps between poor and minority students and their white and more affluent classmates.
Franken and Kline said they're confident the House and Senate will pass the bill and President Barack Obama will sign it. They hope to send the legislation to the president by the end of the year.
Minnesota educators and policy experts have given it mixed reviews.
Mary Cecconi, legislative director of Minnesota's Parents United for Public Schools, said it won't go far enough to reverse schools' obsession with testing.
But Denise Specht, president of the teachers' union Education Minnesota, said it would allow Minnesota schools to be less fearful of punishment.
"Now we are looking at how can we identify struggling schools and instead of closing them, how can we hug them? How can we get them the support and resources they need?" Specht said.
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
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