WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is making another run at rewriting the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law, even as the White House urges changes that the administration says would ensure that schools be held accountable when their students are seriously lagging their peers in other better-performing elementary and middle schools. The...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate, for the first time in 14 years, will debate an all-new federal education policy this week. The bipartisan proposal would do away with the No Child Left Behind law and reduce — but not end — the federal government's role in public elementary and secondary education. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and...

When it comes to setting standards for America’s public schools, there’s a remarkable degree of consensus: The system the federal government has in place—known as No Child Left Behind—doesn’t work. Fixing it, however, is about to set off a new round of fierce political combat in Washington, D.C., and draw in 2016...

Congressional Republicans are using the power of the purse to do battle against a series of controversial labor regulations from the Obama administration. They say the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) gave a gift to labor unions by issuing what they call an “ambush election” rule that speeds up the process for organizing in the...

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, applauded the education spending bill approved by the committee today — including its controversial policy riders. The bill “prevents other unhelpful and burdensome regulations on our nation’s 6,000 colleges and universities,” Alexander...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander gave the commencement address to the nearly 700 graduates of the Walters State Community College on Saturday. WSCC’s 48th commencement exercise took place Saturday at the Great Smoky Mountains Expo Center. Alexander said his late friend, author Alex Haley, loved commencement exercises. “Everyone is so...

It’s very hard to pass a federal law in the United States, and for good reason. Our revolution was against a king; our Founders established a government of elected representatives who would reflect the voters’ will and who were expected to show restraint in making laws. In fact, the Constitution made sure that they were well...

SMYRNA – A Senate education bill reforming No Child Left Behind could lessen federal control in the education system and help calm heated debates about Common Core standards, said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the bill's sponsor. The legislation passed unanimously this past week out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander concluded his weekly communication to constituents with words likely to prove prophetic. Referring to the Senate education committee agreement last week to fix the No Child Left Behind Act, he wrote: “We’ve got a long way to go, but we are off to a good start.” There’s reason for the tempered...

WASHINGTON — Score one — no, make that two — points for bipartisanship. It doesn’t happen often, but U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander managed to get two potentially controversial bills passed out of their committees last week with large, bipartisan majorities. In both cases, the votes were unanimous. Defying the...

When Republicans took control of the Senate after last year's election, Tennessee Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander figured to play more prominent roles. This week they are fulfilling those expectations. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Corker is at the center over the struggle between the White House and the Senate over the...

When Republicans took control of the Senate after last year's election, Tennessee Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander figured to play more prominent roles. This week they are fulfilling those expectations. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Corker is at the center over the struggle between the White House and the Senate over the...

Fourteen years ago a bipartisan coalition of federal lawmakers passed the controversial and now much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act. Another bipartisan effort this year could reform the law to provide states and local school districts something they've pined for all this time: more local control. A deal crafted by Sen. Lamar Alexander,...

The federal role in local schools would be significantly reduced under a bipartisan proposal released Tuesday by Senate leaders working to replace No Child Left Behind, the country’s main education law. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and ranking Democrat Sen. Patty...

WASHINGTON — The federal government would no longer label public schools successful or failing based on student test scores under bipartisan legislation introduced Tuesday by two key senators. The long-awaited rewrite of the federal K-12 education law is a compromise crafted by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. It...

An unusual bipartisan Senate deal to reform the controversial "No Child Left Behind" program would pull back federal involvement in local schools, and leave it up to states to participate in Common Core, according to the architects of the long-awaited compromise. "Basically, our agreement continues important measurements of the academic progress of...

Sen. Lamar Alexander is calling on Anthem, the insurance giant that was hit by a cyberattack, to speed up its efforts to notify people whose information was breached. Alexander, co-head of the Senate health committee alongside Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, issued a public letter to Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish. The cyberattack on Anthem exposed up...

The chairman of the Senate education committee is optimistic that a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (PL 110-315) will move quickly later this year. “This is a train that’s likely to move down the track and onto the station by the end of the year,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told a group of college presidents...

Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about whether the Obama administration used the IRS to deliver health insurance subsidies to Americans in violation of the law. Millions of Americans may lose these subsidies if the court finds that the administration acted illegally. If that occurs, Republicans have a plan to protect Americans...

Now that Tennessee Promise guarantees every Tennessee high school graduate two years of tuition-free community college, the main obstacle standing between a Tennessee high school graduate and two years of free higher education is a ridiculously complex federal form. A solution, introduced by a bipartisan group of United States senators, would...