Dive Brief:

• Rep. John Kline (R-MN), who chairs the House education committee, spoke Monday about the high priority the Republican-led Congress will place on scrapping No Child Left Behind in 2015.
• Klein told the Associated Press that the current system, where some states have waivers and others do not, is too messy.
• The congressman also indicated that he hopes to give more control to state and local leaders.

Dive Insight:

Kline's statements are no surprise. After the midterms, NPR spoke with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who has a similar stance on the Bush-era education law: "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.

While many believe NCLB ushered in the era of high-stakes testing, the current waiver system has done little to relieve this mentality. In exchange for freedom from NCLB's stringent expectations, states receiving waivers have to concede to numerous Obama administration mandates, which have included the adoption of Common Core standards and test-based teacher evaluations. In many ways, it becomes a question of the lesser of two evils for some states, with very little leg room to deviate without penalization.