Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The largest U.S. teachers union is among a group endorsing a plan in Congress that would expand the federal No Child Left Behind law by offering states a single national standard for teaching math and science.

The proposal by Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a Democrat who will lead the Senate Banking Committee, and Representative Vernon Ehlers, a Republican of Michigan, would set the curriculum standard on the federal level and give states financial incentives to adopt it, Dodd said in a statement...

The law lets states write their own curriculum and tests, and decide their own standards for success. Bush has remained opposed to creating federal standards, even as business and educational leaders warn that low state standards are threatening U.S. economic competitiveness.

A University of California study last year found states reporting about 68 percent of their fourth-graders proficient in reading, while the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress, a non-binding sample test, put the figure at 31 percent. In math, the states found 65 percent proficient while NAEP found 30 percent.

The Dodd-Ehlers plan, and its support from more than two dozen other educational and business groups, is a breakthrough for ending poor state standards, said Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based research group that is among its endorsers.

"The country is on an inexorable march toward national education standards,'' Dannenberg said. "The question is not if, but when and how..."

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