Obama: Replace education law this year

President Obama used his weekly address to renew his call for a rewrite of federal education law and to give more local control and flexibility to schools.

“We need to promote reform that gets results while encouraging communities to figure out what’s best for their kids,” Obama said. “That why it’s so important that Congress replace No Child Left Behind this year – so schools have that flexibility. Reform just can’t wait.”

{mosads}The president touted his Race to the Top initiative, which aims to reward schools that demonstrate success, by extolling the achievements of Mephis’s Booker T. Washington High School, where Obama gave the commencement address earlier in the week.

“We need to reward the reforms that are driven not by Washington, but by principals and teachers and parents. That’s how we’ll make progress in education – not from the top down, but from the bottom up,” Obama said. “And that’s the guiding principle of the Race to the Top competition.”

In March, Obama called on Congress to send him an education bill “before the next school year begins.”

But Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said he would not rush a rewrite of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, which was due for reauthorization four years ago.

“I’m very much aware that 2012 is a presidential election year and presidential politics will start to dominate what goes on around here,” Kline told The Hill in a March interview. “So there is a little bit of urgency to move, but I’m not going to rush this and do it wrong.”

Kline responded to the president’s Saturday address by agreeing with the idea of giving more local control to schools. But he added, “The nation’s education system is in critical need of improvement, but thoughtful, responsible reform will take more than rhetoric. I hope the president will work closely with Congress as we move forward a series of key education bills.”