Dive Brief:
- NPR spoke about education with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-TN, who is posed to become the chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee and in turn run the Republican education agenda.
- Overhauling No Child Left Behind is the top priority of the Republican education agenda, according to Alexander. "The Republican proposal to fix NCLB would give states the option — not mandate — to take federal dollars and let those dollars follow children to the schools they attend," he said.
- In terms of the Common Core, Alexander said he supports giving state the choice to decide for themselves whether to adopt the standards.
Dive Insight:
"Choice" is a word that came up often with Alexander: State choice with NCLB dollars, state choice with the Common Core, and local choice on how funds are spent to enact President Obama's $75 million universal pre-K plan. As Alexander explains on the pre-K front, "I think a better approach would be to take the $22 billion the federal government already spends on early childhood education and give states more flexibility in combining those dollars with state, private and local dollars and give states the option of creating more vouchers for childcare."
