As NCLB reauthorization looms, many debate the logistics.

AT A TIME WHEN POLITICAL sentiment over issues as far-reaching as the war in Iraq, health insurance and gay marriage could not be more polarized, one issue that both Republicans and Democrats seem to be agreeing on is that the federal No Child Left Behind law is in dire need of revision; there is even growing bipartisan lobbying to eliminate it entirely.

Jack Jennings, a Democrat who as president of the Center on Education Policy has studied how the law has been implemented in all 50 states, says that the law is "drawing opposition from the right because they are opposed to federal interference and from the left because of too much testing."

NCLB was originally passed by large bipartisan majorities in President Bush's first year--87 to 10 in the Senate and 381 to 41 in the House. Today, however, it enjoys the strong support of a powerful but unlikely political threesome: President Bush and the Democratic leaders of the education committees, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Rep. George Miller of California.

As reported in DA DAILY (our opt-in electronic newsletter), Arizona and Virginia have battled the federal government in recent months over NCLB rules for testing children with limited English, and Connecticut is two years into a lawsuit arguing that the law has failed to provide states with the necessary federal financing to meet its requirements.

As a result of such disputes, dozens of Republicans in Congress are sponsoring legislation that would cripple the law by allowing states to opt out of its testing requirements and receive federal funding at the same time.

In a similar vein, 10 Democratic senators signed a letter saying that based on feedback from constituents, they consider the law's testing mandates "unsustainable" and demand an overhaul.

Members of Congress and even lawmakers who support the laws goals anticipate that it is headed for a major makeover, which some now admit could be postponed until after the 2008 election.

For Miller, the message is clear: "You can get into a lot of petty politics, but there's a mandate ... for us to improve the law. There's no other way for Congress to go. It'd be a major shock if we reneged on our federal leadership."

Superintendents in the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 66 of the nation's largest urban public school systems, have prepared 180 recommendations, which include the adoption of uniform national academic standards, starting with math and science, says CGCS Executive Director Michael Casserly.

According to Casserly, the council is releasing its recommendations from a position of supporting NCLB, not one of trying to bring down the law.

In April Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, testified at an NCLB reauthorization hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He made clear in his testimony that he was not criticizing the law but that he saw a critical need to expand it so that "all students, especially the six million at risk of dropping out, receive the support they need to stay in and finish high school."

Whether the law can be strengthened or even survive in any recognizable form depends on the alliance of President Bush, Kennedy and Miller.

Jennings understands what's at stake. "It's going to be a brawl," he says.