While our nation’s priorities have changed immensely since September 11, reform of public education is clearly the most important domestic issue we must address. Three and a half decades of increased education spending have not produced the results American students deserve. Achievement gaps between students remain wide–and have actually widened between some groups of students. Despite a federal investment of more than $130 billion since 1965, there is a huge disparity in educational achievement between disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers. Congress recently took a significant step to change this disturbing trend by enacting President George W. Bush’s education reform plan entitled No Child Left Behind with strong bipartisan support. It is a challenge to reform public education. This matter has been taken on in the past, but never fully met. This historic legislation contains much needed reforms: accountability and testing, flexibility and local control, funding for what works, and expanded parental options.

This legislation will empower parents with data, including annual report cards on school performance. States using federal education dollars will have to demonstrate results through annual reading and math assessments for student in grades 3 through 8.

This education reform will also provide unprecedented new flexibility for all 50 states and every local school district in America in the use of federal education funds. Because no two school districts are the same, red tape from the federal government only stands in the way of achievement and progress. Now the state and local levels will have greater flexibility to spend on programs that they believe will help better education their students.

Parents with children in failing schools will now have options to ensure their children are receiving a quality education. After a school is identified as failing, parents will be allowed to transfer them to a better-performing public or charter school immediately, or they may transfer funds that can be used to provide supplemental educational services–including tutoring, after school services, and summer school programs. Finally, the No Child Left Behind Act will ensure that every child can read by the end of third grade and provide intensive reading instruction to those students that are at risk for reading failure.

Public education is the hallmark of our informed democracy. It is more important than ever that we ensure that our children are not failing in school and our schools are not failing our children. The No Child Left Behind Act represents real hope for our nations schools and children.