WASHINGTON — President Bush's much-heralded education reform plan, his first domestic policy accomplishment and one of his most important, is in danger of becoming as much a liability as an asset in his reelection campaign, observers from both political parties say.
The 2002 law, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, has come under fire from school officials around the country as they labor to comply with its tough requirements and find the federal government is providing less money than the law promised.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday January 28, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 63 words Type of Material: Correction
Education reform -- An article in Sunday's Section A on federal education reform law incorrectly reported that the No Child Left Behind Act authorized up to $32 billion to be spent for 2004. That figure was an estimate by the National Education Assn., which projected from the levels authorized for 2002. The law left open the amounts authorized to be spent in 2004.
"This is a big, big problem," said one House Republican, who spoke privately about being inundated with complaints from educators in his district. "The goals and requirements are just not attainable. It is going to hurt the president politically among school people, people who are elected to school boards, community leaders."
The law is the cornerstone of one of Bush's signal political accomplishments: He has helped Republicans win increased public confidence in their handling of education, an issue Democrats have traditionally dominated. In January 2002 -- around the time Bush signed the law -- a Washington Post poll found that 71% of those surveyed approved of Bush's handling of education.
But now the law has become so controversial among educators, state and local officials and others that even a Republican-controlled state legislature last week passed a resolution denouncing it. And, with Democratic presidential candidates relentlessly attacking Bush's education record, a Post poll last month found that Bush's approval rating on the issue had dropped to 47%, the first time it had fallen below 50%.
Bush aides say that represents no political peril because other polls show that the education law remains popular among the people it is designed to help -- parents with children in troubled schools -- even if it has riled the education establishment.
The education improvement law has become a hot political issue even though it passed Congress with strong bipartisan support. It requires states to test every student in reading and math each year from third through eighth grade, and it requires schools to make progress each year in increasing the share of students who show proficiency on the tests. Schools that fail to make adequate progress for two years must let students transfer to better schools or offer after-school tutoring.
