President Barack Obama reaches to greet students during an unannounced stop at the auditorium at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Va., Monday, March, 14, 2011. (AP Photo)

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Citing broad themes such as “fair” and “flexible,” President Obama called Monday for an overhaul to “No Child Left Behind,” a major Bush-era education reform.

“The goals of No Child Left Behind were the right goals,” Obama said during a visit to Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Va. “Making a promise to educate every child with an excellent teacher – that’s the right thing to do, that’s the right goal.”

“Higher standards are right. Accountability is right,” he continued. “Shining a light on the achievement gap between students of different races and backgrounds, and those with and without disabilities, that’s the right thing to do.”

“But what hasn’t worked is denying teachers, schools, and states what they need to meet these goals. That’s why we need to fix No Child Left Behind. We need to make sure we’re graduating students who are ready for college and ready for careers.”

Obama seeks to replace standardized tests to measure school performance with a $350 million plan to help states create new assessments and gear students toward college. His proposal would also offer more local control over schools, he said.

The president also wants to replace the NCLB’s pass-fail school grading with a system that rewards teachers and principals for improvements. He wants to support governors in adopting more “college- and career-ready” education initiatives. The Obama plan would offer incentives to higher performing teachers to work in underperforming schools, where they are most needed.

Obama, who has visited schools in Boston and Miami in recent weeks to promote successful institutions, wants Congress to send him a new education bill by the fall.

“We need to not only hold failing schools accountable, we need to help turn those schools around,” he said at the Arlington school. “In the 21st century, it’s not enough to leave no child behind. We need to help every child get ahead. We need to get every child on a path to academic excellence.”

CNSNews.com asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week where the Constitution authorizes federal government involvement in primary and secondary education but did not get a direct answer.

Instead, Duncan noted that most funding comes from state and local level, then went on to say that the federal government has “a responsibility to support children who have historically not had those kinds of opportunities – disadvantaged children, poor children, homeless students, children who are English language learners – and, more recently, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of reform from the department.”

“We have to dramatically improve the quality of education we are providing this country and we can help to continue to reward excellence and encourage at the local level,” he added.

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Education spent $106.9 billion in fiscal year 2010.

No Child Left Behind is the current iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It was President George W. Bush’s key education legislative achievement, pushed through Congress with the help of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 2002. The Bush-Kennedy stamp allowed the bill to pass with wide bipartisan approval.

The policy established periodic testing for all students in science as well as in reading and math and set annual accountability targets every school must meet.  NCLB set a national goal that by 2014 all students would be “proficient” in reading and math. It requires states and school districts to intervene when schools miss their annual targets for multiple years.

More than one-third (37 percent) of America’s schools are not meeting their annual targets mandated by NCLB, according to the Department of Education. It estimates that number could more than double in 2011, to more than 80 percent of schools.

Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.) talks with reporters at a May 28, 2010 press conference on Capitol Hill. (Photo from Issa's Web site)

‘No veto for teachers’ unions’

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called on the president Monday to restore funding to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The federally-funded school voucher program provided payments for poor students in failing schools to attend private schools, but it ran into union opposition and the Obama administration allowed it to lapse.

“The American people need to know if President Obama is prepared to stand against union pressure when they oppose innovative education programs and reforms that help our students,” Issa said in a statement. “President Obama has the opportunity to do this by announcing his support for the bipartisan effort to restore a successful program that benefits students from families of modest means in our nation’s capital.”

Last week, the committee chaired by Issa voted to approve the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. The legislation restores the D.C. program, which was effectively killed in 2009, Issa notes, due to opposition from teachers’ unions and other political opponents.  Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has introduced companion legislation.

“Independent studies and reports from parents and students have confirmed the benefits of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which offers students an alternative to failing D.C. public schools,” said Issa.

“Teachers’ unions don’t like the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program – and other reforms that hold failing public education systems accountable – but teachers’ unions shouldn’t have a veto over effective reforms.”