[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] on Thursday passed a bill [materials] to revamp the controversial 2001 No Child Left Behind Act [materials]. The bill comes as part of an effort to overhaul the old law and give more flexibility to states in setting their own standards for student and school performance. The original law has come under severe criticism for being too reliant on standardized testing. The bill passed [roll call] with a vote of 81-17. Last week the US House of Representatives [official website] passed a similar bill called the Student Success Act [backgrounder], and now the two chambers expect to convene soon to draft a single proposal to send to President Barack Obama. According to senator Patty Murray (D-MA) [official website] the new bill would put less emphasis [press release] on standardized testing and more emphasis on college preparation. There would be less pressure on students and teachers to meet requirements of standardized scores, and would even prevent the federal government from mandating national education standards.

Education related issues have continued to generate controversy in the US in recent years. Last month the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled [JURIST report] in favor of tight regulations pointed at the for-profit college industry. The court ruled that the Education Department has the right to demand that schools show that their graduates are financially dependent enough to repay their student loans. In January Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation [JURIST report] that will require all Arizona High School students to take and pass the US Citizenship test before they are able to graduate, beginning in the 2016-17 school year. In August 2014 a judge for a Travis County Civil Court in Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the Texas legislature failed to meet its constitutional duty to provide for Texas public schools because the school finance system is structured, operated, and funded so that it cannot provide a constitutionally reasonable education for all Texas schoolchildren. Also last August education advocacy groups in New York challenged the state’s teacher tenure laws [JURIST report], claiming that laws protecting teacher employment violate the civil rights of children to a quality education.