State lawmakers seem encouraged by the Obama administration’s plans to grant waivers to portions of the No Child Left Behind Act, judging from the reaction among legislators gathered in Texas for a national conference.
Many lawmakers and attendees at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual legislative summit generally spoke favorably of the idea, having heard years of complaints from local school officials about the law, and concerns about the difficulty (some would say impossibility) of meeting its mandates. Some legislators said their optimism about the waivers was partly attributable to their disappointment that Congress hasn’t moved further in developing plans for a full rewrite of the law.
One lawmaker I spoke with about the issue was Arizona state Sen. Rich Crandall, a Republican who chairs his chamber’s education committee. Crandall also talked about the bleak financial conditions facing his state (his state has a lot of company):