WASHINGTON - Something strange is happening on Capitol Hill: Politicians are working together.

Lawmakers crafting a remake to President Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind law are making progress on the bill as a bipartisan group, in sharp contrast to the contentious, 14-month battle over health care.

At the center of the education debate is Minnesota Rep. John Kline, whose role as the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee has made him the GOP's point man in that branch of Congress for education reform.

Kline and his Democrat colleagues carry differing approaches to education reform, but nonetheless have fielded one another's ideas as they craft legislation. It started several months ago, with a bipartisan meeting of legislators on Capitol Hill.

The four-term congressman largely credits Education Secretary Arne Duncan with charting a more inclusive legislative path and trying to avoid the partisan pitfalls of the health care debate.

"Not only is it good to develop policy that way, but I think that he realizes that he really needs some Republican buy-in in order to get this," Kline said during a recent interview in his Washington office. "Because just like with No Child Left Behind, you're going to have some Republicans support, some not, some Democrats support, some not."

Kline and Duncan speak frequently by phone. "We do see eye to eye on some things, which is what's made this possible to go forward," Kline said.

NCLB criticized as outdated

No Child Left Behind was hailed by both parties as a major legislative achievement when it was passed in 2001, but some provisions have since come under scrutiny from educators and politicians, who say it badly needs an update. The drive to pass the original bill, in the early years of the Bush administration, also was unusually bipartisan.

But the cooperative spirit is not without its sticking points. Kline is pushing back against moves to increase the federal government's role in education. He wants local governments to retain more control under the new bill. The current law lets states set their own standards, but Kline says it remains overly prescriptive from the federal level.

Kline said he hopes to "restore some local control we've lost and avoid particularly putting more federal control in."

That dilemma -- how involved should the feds be -- is going to be a key ideological debate as the bill is drafted this summer.

Kline's colleague on the committee and its chairman, Rep. George Miller of California, seems to invite that dialogue -- so long as they avoid the partisan rancor.

"Everybody on this committee has an interest in seeing America have the best schools possible," Miller said. "We will have different policy issues on how we get there or what the role of the federal government is in helping to do that or not helping to do that. But that's the political debate, that doesn't have to be a war."

Kline also wants the bill to allow the creation of more charter schools and reward teachers for exceptional performance in the classroom -- two areas where he says he has found common ground with Duncan.

Starting together

The two parties jointly embarked on the project in January, when Duncan called together a meeting of the "Big 8" -- a bipartisan group of key lawmakers from education committees in the House and Senate.

"There was unanimous agreement that yes, we needed to change [No Child Left Behind]," Kline said of that first meeting at the Capitol.

Committee staffers from both parties have since met semiweekly, and lawmakers expect to draft an initial compromise in the coming weeks. With so many items on the legislative agenda -- not to mention mid-term elections -- it's not certain to reach a vote this year, though lawmakers on the committee remain optimistic.

"We're there, we're going to be at the table," Kline said. "Any time there's an opportunity to discuss this, to offer ideas and move this, we're there.

Eric Roper • 612-673-1732