President Bush's Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has endorsed the principle underlying a national education standards incentive plan developed with the support of the New America and Thomas B. Fordham Foundations, according two major press reports.

On Monday, January 8th, Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) and Congressman Vernon R. Ehlers (R-MI) unveiled their version of a plan for uniform, "American" education standards to an overcapacity crowd at the New America Foundation's Washington, DC headquarters. The Dodd-Ehlers plan crafted with the early and frequent assistance of the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program and conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation gives states federal grant aid and increased program flexibility in implementing the No Child Left Behind Act's provisions in exchange for adopting high, "American" (i.e. national) education standards in mathematics and science.

The plan already has garnered the support of the President of the National Association of Manufacturers and former Republican Governor John Engler (MI), former Democratic Governor Bob Wise (D-WV), business groups such as the American Chemical Society, education groups including the National Education Association and the Council of Great City Schools, and noted philanthropist Eli Broad.

According to Diana Jean Schemo of The New York Times, on Monday,

“Ms. Spellings indicated that the administration would be amenable to . . . incentives to make state standards more rigorous and uniform.”

An Associated Press article included a similar interpretation of Ms. Spellings remarks:

“Spellings also indicated she was willing to consider providing financial incentives to states that want to align their standards with more rigorous ones in place elsewhere. The Administration, and Republicans generally, have consistently resisted anything that resembles national standards dictating what students across the country should know and learn. "I think anytime there´s a carrot approach, as opposed to a stick for continuing to raise the bar, I think that will be well received," Spelling said. The No Child Left Behind law has pushed some states to weaken their standards to avoid consequences that arise when schools miss annual targets. Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., have introduced legislation addressing the issue. The National Education Association, the largest teachers´ union, has endorsed Dodd´s bill calling for voluntary national standards.”

Spellings' position is not an exceptionally great leap for the Bush Administration. Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush released his proposed outline for K-12 education reform, the proposal that would eventually become No Child Left Behind Act. The original Bush No Child Left Behind proposal included the idea that states should be held accountable for student performance based upon the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and that states that did well on NAEP receive financial rewards. Those ideas were dropped during the legislative process in 2001 and since then the Bush administration repeatedly has expressed opposition to mandatory, national education standards.