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Bill would let states opt-out of Bush education law

The Bush Administration is looking to reauthorize the president's signature education law he constructed with Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy -- No Child Left Behind.

However, many lawmakers in the president's own party have grave concerns about reauthorizing the law. Scott Garrett (R-New Jersey) is one of them and he has introduced a bill that would allow states to opt out of No Child Left Behind. The bill is called the LEARN Act (HR 3177), which stands for Local Education Authority Returns Now.

"If states really don't want the federal government to be dictating to them as to how they run their schools and what they teach, and how they teach, and who their teachers are, those states should be able to opt out of the system and let the taxpayers keep their money right in their own pockets. And that’s what the LEARN act would accomplish," explains Garrett.

Under Garrett's bill, residents of states that opt out of No Child Left Behind would receive a tax credit equal to the amount that they would have otherwise received in federal funding.

Originally the LEARN Act was a plank of the so-called "Republican Revolution" in the mid-1990s and was designed to eliminate the Department of Education. Garrett says that is no longer a priority for most of his GOP colleagues.

"They were not able to get that done during the last 12 years and very likely they are not going to be able to get it done now," he says. "But there are some states out there that believe that parents and teachers and school boards locally can make these decisions, thank you very much, without the help of the federal government. And those states should have that prerogative."

The A-PLUS Act, a bill sponsored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), would provide a block grant to states that opt out of No Child Left Behind, but only if they meet certain standards.