Ed Flex Extension Passes House,
 Heads To President’s Desk
March 14, 2006

Washington, DC – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed an extension of the Education Flexibility Partnership Act (Ed Flex). The bill, which was sponsored by Senator Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and cosponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., passed the Senate on March 2 and is now headed to the President’s desk. President Bush is expected to sign the Ed Flex extension into law. 

This legislation will allow states that have strong accountability standards to continue to waive certain federal education requirements. Currently, under the supervision of the federal Department of Education, Ed Flex allows states to grant waivers to local school districts for some provisions of the No Child Left Behind law. Without this extension, Ed Flex will expire this coming September.

Vermont is among ten states that have taken advantage of Ed Flex. The law provides some school districts in Vermont with increased flexibility in securing federal support to address the educational needs of disadvantaged students.  

“This is great news for Vermont’s schools,” said Jeffords. “We are now one step closer to ensuring that schools across the country will continue to have this critical flexibility as they work to make better use of federal education dollars.”

“When the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, I had concerns that Vermont’s educational needs would not be met by its ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach,” said Leahy.  “By extending the Ed Flex program, we are ensuring that Vermont schools will have some financial flexibility in meeting their individual needs.  I commend Senator Jeffords for his persistence in working to pass this needed extension.”

Ed Flex was first enacted in 1999 under the leadership of Jeffords when he was chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

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