Conway's Ray Simon wraps up tenure in Washington

WASHINGTON An Arkansan and chief proponent of the No Child Left Behind Act will leave his post come January while hoping the controversial education reform law won't leave with him.

Ray Simon, deputy U.S. education secretary, is confident the landmark education legislation of the Bush administration will stay mostly intact when President-elect Barack Obama takes over Jan. 20.

Simon will be out of a job at the end of Bush's term after more than five years in Washington as the Education Department's point man on No Child Left Behind.

"We are leaving No Child Left Behind in a very good position to be embraced by the next administration and be built upon by the next administration," Simon said during an interview in his Washington office last month.

Simon touted the act as the key instrument in increased reading and math scores for students nationwide since its implementation in 2002.

The law requires all public school students to perform at grade level. Low-performing schools face sanctions for not meeting that or other requirements.

Critics maintain the current law fails to consider needs of many special education students and others who speak English as a second language.

They bemoan a lack of federal funding for the extensive mandates thrust upon states and school districts.

Simon acknowledged that some parts of the law need a "tweak," but otherwise the core mission is universally supported. That's why he's confident that Obama and a new Congress will reauthorize No Child Left Behind as early as next year.

"There's no much difference about what needs to be done," he said. "Our differences lie sometimes in how to get there. But I don't sense any backing off of the rigorous standards" now in place.

That Simon would praise a law he was hired to support is not surprising.

He arrived at the Department of Education in December 2003 as an assistant secretary. He was named second-in-command of the agency in June 2005.

He said No Child Left Behind has been his primary responsibility from the outset.

That's created a little friction with the folks back in Arkansas, where he served for six years as head of the state Department of Education.

"Some of us fellow Arkansans have felt at times maybe Ray was a bit inflexible with how strong he's maintained some of the lines on No Child Left Behind when we thought maybe the department had greater flexibility than they were allowing," said Tom Kimbrell, the director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.

Nevertheless, Kimbrell said his organization recognizes the value of the federal act and Simon's importance in its development.

"Ray has gone up there and made Arkansas proud," Kimbrell said. "He was wholeheartedly into the process of assessing these kids and not leaving them behind."

Simon, a Conway native, was a math teacher and administrator in North Little Rock before he was named superintendent of the Conway School District.

An intermediate school in his hometown is named in honor of Simon and his wife, Phyllis.

Simon was mum about any job prospects, though he said he was open to returning to Arkansas.

Ethics rules prevent him from talking to possible employers without disclosing the discussions.

"I felt that if I'm going to serve the president the way he deserves to be served until the end of his term, I can't really be entertaining job offers," Simon said. "I plan to stay on until the end of the term."

He and his wife live in an apartment in suburban Virginia. He commutes to work daily on Washington's subway system.

The couple enjoys the Washington area for its walkable communities and its historical significance. They like the people for their friendliness. The hospitality of the area's residents come as a surprise to many Arkansans, Simon said.

"That's been a fabulous opportunity for my wife and me," he said.

He still keeps up with the goings-on in Arkansas. He praised his successor at the Department of Education, Ken James, for leading school reform initiatives in the state.

Many of those initiatives had their start while Simon was in Arkansas.

"It's been my experience that meaningful school reform takes about a decade to really see improvement, and I think we're seeing that," Simon said. "Arkansas is getting a lot of recognition now around the country for its efforts in school reform."