Margaret Spellings, the U.S. secretary of education, is on a campaign to preserve President Bush’s beleaguered education initiative, No Child Left Behind. The White House had hoped Congress would revisit the bill this year, but on Capitol Hill, prospects for updating the legislation are virtually dead.
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SIDEBAR: Democrats are dividing into camps as they debate a new course for education policy after President Bush leaves office. A group of a dozen prominent educators and lawmakers say public schools shortchange poor black and Latino children; they want Washington to squeeze teachers and administrators harder to raise achievement among minorities. But another group of prominent educators and academics issued another manifesto, which criticized No Child Left Behind and argued that schools alone could not close a racial achievement gap rooted in economic inequality. They urged a new emphasis on health clinics and other antipoverty programs that could help poor students arrive at school ready to learn.
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