The House Republican leadership has named Congressman John Kline (R-MN) to be the new ranking member on the Education and Labor Committee. He replaces Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) who has been selected to be the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Congressman Kline represents the second Congressional District from Minnesota and is in his fourth term. Prior to becoming ranking member for the full Committee, he served as the Republican leader on the Health, Employment, Labor and Pension Subcommittee.
With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in need of reauthorization, the Education and Labor Committee will obviously play a major role. However, Congressman Kline might bring more opposition to reauthorization or any new education legislation than before. When NCLB became law, it was passed with bipartisan support. Congressman Kline is not a supporter of NCLB and in fact was a co-sponsor of the A-Plus Act which aimed to limit the Federal accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind.
In a recent op-ed Congressman Kline pointed out that he supports the Federal government paying its required share of special education funding. He wrote:
“One of my legislative priorities since arriving in Congress – ensuring the federal government fulfills the commitment to paying its share of special education costs – will become one of my first orders of business in my new role. I have heard too many stories from schools in Minnesota and across the nation who have been forced to choose between cutting bus routes, eliminating extracurricular activities, or increasing class sizes to cope with shrinking budgets. If the federal government paid what it promised, we would enable schools across America to direct limited resources to address their specific needs – whether it is state of the art classrooms, additional teachers, or new textbooks – and make it possible for teachers and administrators to focus on the important job of providing the best education possible for all our children.”
It remains to be seen how the two parties will now interact on the Education and Labor Committee in the future.
