Boehner: House Republicans Will Fight Together for Increased Local Control of Schools, Increased Parental Choice in Education

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Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) said today that House Republicans will fight together for expanded local control of schools and increased school choice for parents as Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education reform law.

“As the No Child Left Behind Act comes up for reauthorization, House Republicans will challenge Democrats to explain why we can’t provide more choices for parents and more local control for states and communities that are willing to commit to increasing student achievement,” Boehner said. “We need to allow parents to choose the best schools possible for their children, and we need to allow greater freedom and flexibility for states that take the initiative in closing the achievement gap between affluent students and their peers. House Republicans will work together this year to accomplish these goals.”

Boehner noted that the original version of the NCLB legislation, introduced by Boehner and other House Republicans in March 2001 as H.R. 1, featured a “charter states” proposal that would have allowed states to design their own school accountability systems in exchange for a commitment to raising student achievement and expanding parental choice. The proposal would also have allowed low-income parents with children in chronically underachieving public schools to send their children to private or religious schools.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, this week introduced legislation that would allow parents with children in chronically underachieving public schools to transfer their children to successful private and religious schools. The legislation builds on the District of Columbia ’s successful school choice program, created by Congress and President Bush in 2003 using the NCLB model.

“In the District of Columbia, low-income parents used data from No Child Left Behind as leverage to get the right to transfer their children out of chronically failing schools and into successful private and religious schools – a right they’d been seeking for years,” Boehner said. “We need to allow parents in similar situations in communities across America to have the same opportunities, while providing increased local control for states that are willing to commit to increasing student achievement.”