Nebraska Tests Bush

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On the day he signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law last January, President Bush stood beside Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy in a public-school gymnasium and boasted of a bipartisan coup. "You're seeing government at its best," said Bush of the historic education legislation. "We figured out how to put our parties aside and focus on what's right for the American children." A year later, that focus is faltering. Kennedy, a prime sponsor of the bill, boycotted the East Room ceremony marking the law's anniversary because of a lack of resources for the legislation. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential hopefuls are taking the funding issue onto the campaign trail. And though most states are moving to comply with the Jan. 31 deadline to submit plans for beginning to carry out the law, a handful are balking at some of its key provisions. The loudest griping is coming from a surprising source: G.O.P. party faithful who say the broad-reaching law tramples states' rights and micromanages local decisions. "We are really standing our ground against adopting something that could wreck a successful state program," says Louisiana's Republican Governor Mike Foster. Some of the fiercest resistance has come from the Republican stronghold of Nebraska, whose Governor Mike Johanns was among the earliest supporters of Bush in his presidential bid. "The bill is the biggest federal grab in the history of education," says Chuck Hagel, the state's Republican Senator. While the cornerstone of the law mandates statewide standardized exams in Grades 3 through 8, Nebraska wants to stick with its own system, which formally tests students in only two of these years with exams designed in large part by local teachers. "Over my dead body will we co-opt our system," the state's education commissioner Doug Christensen said last summer. Since then he and the Governor have tussled with Administration officials in private and in print over the issue.

Last week Washington tried to make peace. Following inquiries from TIME to discuss the issue, Education Secretary Rod Paige called Christensen to see if he could personally visit the state and "work together" on a solution. For its part, Nebraska has minimally tweaked its plan, but it still falls far short of the law's core annual-testing regimen. If the Administration accepts the plan, other states may begin agitating for special treatment and the law could lose its federal force.