No Child Left Behind has endured its share of criticism, that’s for sure. Now it looks like one of the most important aspects of the legislation, school choice, may be reduced when it’s renewed. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recently sent a letter to Representative George Miller with the House Education and Labor Committee, voicing her concerns. Finn Laursen of the Christian Educators Association International echoes her sentiments.

“In a nation where, historically, the more choices we give people the better off they are and I’d like to see choices expanded.”

And not just from a list of public schools. Andrew Campanella with the Alliance for School Choice says private schools should be included as well.

“I think it’s extraordinarily difficult to include the private school choice provisions that we want in No Child Left Behind and that’s why legislators need to hear from parents who want these private school choices.”

Candi Cushman with Focus on the Family Action is not optimistic anything will be added to the legislation, but says something can be done to put pressure on lawmakers to leave the school choice provisions alone.

“Not only do we need to push for congressmen to include more choice for parents in No Child Left Behind reform, but we also need to push public schools to make these options available to parents and to publicize them.”

The changes are still in draft form. No word on when final language will be released.