Bush's High School Reform Appears Dead on Arrival
Lawmakers Say President's Timing Was Bad, No Legislation Will Be Introduced

By STEW MAGNUSON

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said there won't be any legislation to authorize President Bush's high school reform initiative emerging from the committee this year.

Boehner and Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Mike Castle, R-Del., said they support in principle the administration's ideas to reform high schools, but it was too early to expand No Child Left Behind Act testing into high schools.

"With all due respect to the president's pronouncements ... to moving No Child Left Behind to high schools, I'm not too sure we're ready to create legislation on that," Castle said at a press conference.

Castle said he wasn't exactly sure how to extend NCLB into high schools, and, "frankly, there's political opposition to that, and it's not just Democrats."

Setting the stage

Nevertheless, Boehner said the committee will hold several hearings on reforming high schools this year, the first tentatively scheduled for next week. The hearings may lead to a push for legislation next year, he added.

President Bush announced his $1.5 billion high school reform initiative earlier this year and said several times during the 2004 presidential campaign that he would like to expand NCLB testing in secondary schools.

The administration also proposed folding the popular Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act funding into the initiative, which now looks highly unlikely after the strong support the reauthorization received in the House and Senate.

Castle said that little in terms of concrete proposals came from the administration after the announcement. "There are not fundamental differences in doing what the president wants, it's just going to take longer to do it," he said.