NJ Gets "No Child Left Behind" Waiver

President Barack Obama on Thursday announced his administration was granting 10 states waivers from the decade-old No Child Left Behind law.

Though it had broad bipartisan support when it passed, the law has lost favor among both Republicans, who see it as federal overreach, and Democrats, who argue that it labels too many schools as failures and calls for cumbersome steps to fix them. Congress, however, has been unable to agree on how to revise the law.

Obama told his audience in the East Room of the White House that the goals of the initiative -- a signature education measure of former President George W. Bush -- were "the right ones" but that his administration "determined we need a different approach."

"In September, after waiting far too long for Congress to act, I announced that my administration would take steps to reform No Child Left Behind on our own," Obama said during the press conference with Education Secretary Arne Duncan by his side. "Kids in our schools can't be held back by inaction."

No Child Left Behind requires schools to test students annually in third through eighth grades and once in high school. States have to set annual targets for the share of kids who must pass state exams and lift that number until 100 percent of all students in all categories are passing by 2014.

The waivers would remove that requirement, in exchange for an undertaking from individual states to create a new plan to raise achievement among all students. Obama said it gives greater flexibility to states that are "willing to set higher, more honest standards than No Child Left Behind."

The president described some of the goals set by the 10 states, including New Jersey's plan to reduce the number of dropouts by using an "early warning system" and Massachusetts' goal to cut the number of under-performing students in half over the next six years.

The other states approved for flexibility under the law are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

The administration has said it is continuing to work closely with New Mexico, which applied for a waiver, to grant it freedom from the initiative. Twenty-eight other states -- along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. -- are expected to apply for waivers in the future.