As DeVos Approves Education Plans, She Finds Unlikely Skeptics in GOP Governors

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.