September 23rd, 2011
11:09 AM ET

Obama: States may skip parts of 'No Child Left Behind'

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Friday that states will be allowed to opt out of various requirements of the controversial No Child Left Behind law - the landmark education reform initiative passed with broad bipartisan support a decade ago.

The administration will begin reviewing state applications to waive various requirements in the law in return for credible commitments to close lingering achievement gaps.

The law, which passed 2001, requires public schools to meet targets aimed at making all students proficient in reading and math by 2014 or face stiff penalties. The Department of Education has predicted up to 82% of the nation's schools could miss that target and face penalties including the loss of federal education dollars.

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Filed under: Barack Obama • Education • Politics
soundoff (54 Responses)
  1. Adam

    I get why he would want to do this but it does not seem right to me. We knew it would be a tough goal to meet when this law was made but doing this is just basically going back on his word and showing something else he couldn't accomplish.

    September 27, 2011 at 12:18 am | Report abuse |
    • Art

      I agree.

      September 27, 2011 at 2:06 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Kat

    I agree with what the President is trying to do. He's trying to make sure that our schools don't loose funding because they are struggling to meet the criteria of the NCLBA, and I commend him for that. For those people who are opposed, what would you do if the school in your area lost funding because it couldn't meet requirements of the bill? It means that your children's education would suffer even more. It means that property values and the desirability of your neighborhood would plummet.

    And those of you saying that Obama passed this bill, he didn't – Bush did, and now someone has to make unpopular choices to preserve what little is left of our failing school systems. Obama is making an honest effort to do what little he can in a situation where so many people are choosing to blame him for everything that goes wrong in this country, and much of it is not his fault.

    September 29, 2011 at 10:19 am | Report abuse |
  3. Mmmmm

    Look Obama I'm tired of the-opt-out-line-item-veto policies which shirks responsibility to the American people...that's like telling a deadbeat dad child support payments are mandatory but ya kno' you can opt out...don't you know states are deadbeat dads?

    October 5, 2011 at 7:50 am | Report abuse |
  4. Bush Suxs

    So someone tell me how this makes sense.. Underperforming schools, which have class sizes of up to, or even above, 50.. Take money from them and make class sizes even higher (by cutting the teaching force).. Good job Obama. Stop this stupid bill

    October 25, 2011 at 4:43 pm | Report abuse |
    • Annie

      About Partisan Politics Jump to Comments I'm rieadng several conservatives and libertarians who are taking offense to this particular passage from Barack Obama's

      February 11, 2012 at 8:24 pm | Report abuse |
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