After easy re-election, Rep. John Kline hits snags in the more conservative House

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Kline has had better starts to congressional terms.

The Republican's three-year legacy legislation, an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, has stalled in the House of Representatives because he has lost so much GOP support and failed to generate enthusiasm among Democrats. His education measure has been prominently panned, for various reasons, by Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and an extremely popular Utah mom's blog — all of which have whipped up fervor against it on the Hill.

Over in the Senate — traditionally the slower, more deliberative chamber — Republican and Democratic leaders have negotiated a bipartisan education proposal that may get a floor vote before Kline can generate enough yes votes for his overhaul proposal, the Student Success Act.

Meanwhile, back home in the Second Congressional District, the seven-term congressman has two formidable Democrats aggressively raising cash in hopes of replacing him next year.

Angie Craig, an executive at St. Jude Medical, raised $200,000 in two weeks when she launched her campaign earlier this month. Ophthalmologist Dr. Mary Lawrence has raised $220,000 and loaned her campaign $300,000 more. Kline has raised $325,000 in the first quarter. That does not include the $536,000 he raised for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Kline acknowledges that the confluence of events in the first three months of 2015 took him by surprise. This year's version of his education measure actually grew a little more conservative.

"I assumed — and I have to take responsibility for this — that because it passed in a pretty straightforward way in the last Congress and it was a Republican bill, that we would pass it," Kline said in an interview. "We passed it then without Democratic support. I assumed we would have been able to do that pretty easily and pretty quickly in this Congress. … We actually have more Republicans."

Kline finds himself in the current legislative pickle because most of these allowances are poison pills for both Democrats and strict conservatives.

Conservative groups say Kline's bill doesn't allow states or school districts to opt out completely from federal requirements for No Child Left Behind. Liberal education groups want a common curriculum and requirements that states and school districts meet certain, consistent standards.

"Philosophically, we don't believe the federal government should be involved in education," said Will Estrada, director of federal relations for the home school advocacy group. "We've been making it clear for people that the bill includes language we fought hard to get in. … It completely exempts home schools. … Maybe that's considered support, but officially we are neutral on the bill."

In the Senate, leaders toiled in a conference room all last week on a compromise that at times made both Republicans and Democrats, including Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, uncomfortable. The measure passed unanimously out of committee and heads to the full Senate soon.

"I'm pleased many of my amendments to help high-need students passed," Franken said in a statement. "Having said that, we need stronger accountability provisions in this bill."

Over the two-week Easter recess, Kline embarked on an "education" mission to move some Republican House members from no to yes. He encountered additional head wind earlier this year after a mom's blog out of Utah called Education Without Representation said Kline's bill ran counter to "religious freedom, private school autonomy, parental rights." Kline says the blog was loaded with misinformation.

Kline also has taken advantage of the lower-profile time to tackle other, more bipartisan, issues.

He and Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., traveled to the ramshackle Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, a school on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in such poor shape there is a rodent infestation and students have to evacuate the building during windstorms.

Kline asked the House Appropriations Committee to meet a request from the Obama administration for $60 million above the current budget for reconstruction of Bureau of Indian Education schools.

Kline also urged House appropriators to boost special education funding — matching the highest level of sustained support ever provided by Congress.

"We've hit some bumps and we've had some misunderstandings and we needed some education for members," he said. "We sort of hit a stalled position, but I'm very hopeful."