Efforts to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act hit the skids in the House of Representatives last week, and a couple of “grassroots” education bloggers may have had a hand in stalling—or maybe even outright stopping—the legislation.
In particular, Swasey said she’s worried that the bill would force states to stick with the Common Core State Standards, and trample on the rights of private schools, especially religious schools, and homeschoolers. And since the bill keeps the NCLB law’s testing schedule in place, she sees it as passing federal mandates onto states, not getting rid of them entirely. She credits Ann Marie Banfield, a fellow activist, who works with Stop Common Core New Hampshire, with helping her understand the legislation. In fact, she posted Banfield’s analysis into her blog.