WASHINGTON — The majority of states now have the green light from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to begin implementing a sweeping federal law passed in 2015 to replace the much-maligned No Child Left Behind law.
But state and federal education policymakers are running into a surprising source of opposition: governors.
Ms. DeVos has approved 35 plans, including those from Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., that provide a road map for complying with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law passed under President Barack Obama that returns the reins of education reform to states. The law required every state education department to submit a plan.
Of those 35, six are from states where the governor refused to sign on: Maryland, Georgia, Wisconsin, Missouri, Louisiana and New York. Three others that did not get a governor’s endorsement — those from Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kentucky — are pending approval.
Of the nine disputed plans, seven are opposed by Republican governors.
The governors have publicly protested their states’ goals, deeming them underwhelming at best and at worst unjust. In many cases, the governors invoked some of the harsh language that Ms. DeVos herself had used to denounce school districts that they said trapped students in failing schools. Yet they have received little support from a secretary who would seem to be a natural ally.
