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Republicans Target House Democrats Ahead of ESEA Floor Vote

By Michele McNeil — July 17, 2013 1 min read
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The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting 10 House Democrats in a media campaign in advance of this week’s expected floor vote on a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Starting tomorrow, the NRCC is placing paid banner ads—some of which are pictured below—on education blogs in those congressional districts urging voters to tell representatives: “Put your kids first—not Washington bureaucrats.”

The ads are targeting Democrat Reps. Ron Barber and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona; Ami Bera, Raul Ruiz, and Scott Peters of California; Collin Peterson of Minnesota; Mike McIntyre of North Carolina; Pete Gallego of Texas; Jim Matheson of Utah; and Nick Rahall of West Virginia.

It goes without saying that Democrats aren’t likely to support the GOP version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act overhaul, which would scale back the federal role in education. After all, their core constituencies—teachers’ unions and civil rights groups—are opposed to the “Student Success Act.” They are critical of what they see as the bill’s failure to advance so-called college- and career-ready standards; its elimination of maintenance-of-effort provisions in the Title I program; and its undoing of a requirement for states to set the same test-performance targets for all groups of students, my colleague Stephen Sawchuk writes.

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