No Child Left Behind “is strong as mustard gas,” Spellings says

 There is growing doubt whether Congress will reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law in the waning days of the current session. Even Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is tempered in her confidence. “I have worked hard to get a reauthorization,” she told a Monitor-sponsored breakfast with reporters last week. “The bad news is that we are attempting to do it ... on the eve of a presidential election.” Congress is supposed to make revisions in the law and reauthorize it every five years. Whether or not Congress changes the legislation through reauthorization, it will remain on the books and “is strong as mustard gas,” Secretary Spellings said. Read her colorful take on education policy in The Christian Science Monitor online.