source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64504.html
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) is proposing legislation that would essentially cancel out the yearly requirements for education set by the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind mandate from 2002.
This legislation highlights some of the discussion points from class about federal mandates - while the No Child Left Behind policy reform was meant to ensure equal education for minorities and set national education standards, many states argued loudly that the policy is extremely costly (an example of an unfunded mandate).
This proposed bill then supports the position of state governments, saying that many schools will be labeled as "failing" in the coming years and will lose valuable funding under a system whose requirements are much too strict.
I think that the legislation has a valid chance of moving forward in light of the fact that it is considered a "bipartisan" issue and is supported by President Obama himself, as is cited in the article. Lamar claims that "better schools mean better jobs" which is hopefully an indication that states would place priority on education issues if this legislation was passed - and, overall, would one of the unique instances in which devolution was successful in our federal system today.
