SALT LAKE CITY -- In response to the several complaints about No Child Left Behind and its implications on federally-funded schools, President Obama said his administration would grant waivers to states looking to free themselves from a law they consider to be controversial and dysfunctional.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education released vague details of a new waiver system that would provide schools with more flexibility in test scores as long as other standards were met.

Since the current legislation was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2002, Republicans and Democrats have criticized the over-reaching regulations, claiming a one-size-fits-all law could not meet the individual demands of each state.

The waiver system comes in response to President Obama's comments in the most recent State of the Union address on education reform -- and then reemphasized later in March -- when he called on Congress to provide a practical fix to the nine-year-old dysfunctional law by September.

However, because of drastic differences between the House and Senate, President Obama has taken the challenge upon himself to come up with a solution to the states' growing concerns.

"Today we're less than a month from the start of the school year, and we still believe there is no clear path toward a bipartisan bill to reform No Child Left Behind," said domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. "Our administration has been working on plans to provide more flexibility. The president has directed us to proceed with those plans."

Under NCLB, the law requires all students to make significant improvements through the adoption of higher standards, with the goal of 100 percent of students proficient in math and English by 2014. However, if a school fails to meet the law's requirements, it would face serious sanctions, including the loss of federal aid.

Meanwhile, states and local administrations have pleaded with the U.S. Department of Education for relief to free them from the law's rigid regulations and requirements.

"The states are desperately asking for us to respond. I cannot overemphasize how loud the outcry is for us to do something now," Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently said. "Our job, simply put, is to support reform at the state and local level. We need to get out of the way wherever we can."

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Bishop takes on education reform with A-PLUS Act

Promoting the need for reform in education, Representative Rob Bishop recently introduced a piece of legislation that would give states the option to break from a federal standard for education.

And with more than 80 percent of schools in risk of a failing grade in the upcoming school year, Duncan said, states are concerned about the stress it puts on the school districts who are trying to improve test scores and levels of proficiency.

"Unfortunately under current law you actually see some states moving closer to a 90 percent failure rate and to me that doesn't reflect reality. That's an absolute distortion of the picture," Duncan said. "To see them all labeled as failures is dishonest. It is demoralizing to teachers and it's confusing to students and parents."

Additionally, many Republicans and Democrats contend NCLB doesn't account for schools that are making improvements but are still receiving a failing grade. Furthermore, educators are feeling the pressure to reach 100 percent proficiency before 2014, putting the emphasis strictly on standardized tests, which narrows down the curriculum as teachers focus on only subjects involved in end of year testing.

But chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) said Congress should be allowed the time to work on a practical form of legislation that would be a good solution to education reform before President Obama puts into practice a temporary solution.

"I remain concerned that temporary measures instituted by the department, such as conditional waivers, could undermine the committee's efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Act," he said. "The House Education and the Workforce Committee has already advanced three pieces of legislation to reform current elementary and secondary education law, and we plan to complete our re-authorization package this fall."

In July, Rep. Rob Bishop introduced the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act (A-PLUS), which would allow states to enter a five-year performance agreement with the U.S. Secretary of Education, granting every participating state complete control over their education system, without federal interference.

Although Bishop's proposal is one of the many suggested forms of education reform, Kline said there was no possible way to meet President Obama's education reform deadline, but that a solution was imminent.

The Obama administration said they would announce more details of the waiver system in September.

Email: jfurlong@ksl.com

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