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New movement in Washington on No Child Left Behind has Utah education policymakers optimistic that change is coming to the widely criticized federal law.

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday voted unanimously in favor of the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, which would replace No Child Left Behind.

The bill, a bipartisan effort sponsored by Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, would continue annual testing of students, but without the performance expectations of No Child Left Behind that many view as unrealistic and unattainable.

On Friday, Utah Board of Education Chairman David Crandall said the unanimous vote by the Senate committee suggests the bill could have more bipartisan momentum than previous attempts to correct the federal law.

"That alone is very promising," he said. "There have been bills over the years, but this one has been gaining more traction."

Under No Child Left Behind, which was signed into law in 2002, 100 percent of public school students were expected to test at grade level in reading and math by the year 2014. Schools that fell short of that goal would face financial and administrative sanctions.

In 2012, the Obama administration began offering waivers to states, freeing schools from the 100 percent requirement. Most states, including Utah, applied for and received waivers, but criticism followed as some viewed the waivers as an unconstitutional ploy by the president to meddle in local control of education.

Another bill that would update No Child Left Behind was up for consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year. But House leaders canceled a vote in February amid opposition to the bill's reforms.

Another hearing for the Every Child Achieves Act is not scheduled yet. And Utah's Sen. Mike Lee said there is language in the bill that will require debate and possible alteration.

"The bill that the committee reported takes a few good steps in the right direction by giving states more flexibility to cater their education system to the needs of their students," Lee said in a prepared statement. "But the bill also still leaves far too much control in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington and we will try and fix that through amendments on the Senate floor."

In January, members of the Utah Board of Education passed a resolution urging Utah's federal delegation to support and work toward the passage of a replacement for No Child Left Behind.

Crandall said the bills currently under consideration do not contain everything board members would like to see in a replacement law. But he added that No Child Left Behind leaves a relatively low bar for new legislation to improve upon.

"We're optimistic that we can get something better than the current No Child Left Behind," Crandall said. "But it is going to take some time and apparently a lot of debate within Congress."

In a prepared statement, Alexander said the Every Child Achieves Act represents a consensus that measurement of the academic process should continue, but the responsibility of deciding how to improve student achievement should be restored to states, school districts, teachers and parents.

"If senators were students in a classroom, none of us would expect to receive a passing grade for unfinished work," he said. "Seven years is long enough to consider how to fix No Child Left Behind."