Why Won’t Congress Reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Congress has been unable to pass NCLB reform because the Tea Party has eroded the decade long bipartisan consensus on education policy.
When No Child Left Behind was signed into law 2001, lawmakers knew that mandating 100 percent student proficiency in math and reading by 2014 was unrealistic. But they assumed that by 2009, at the latest, Congress would reform and reauthorize the law and in the process adjust some of its unfeasible mandates.