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The decision by Rep. John Kline not to seek reelection in 2016 set off a scramble about who will become the next chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

Kline, who's chaired the committee since 2011, was already set to relinquish the chairmanship in 2017 under term-limits rules. But his retirement announcement Thursday eliminated any possibility he might seek a waiver and set off a succession scramble.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) was the first to indicate her interest in the job and appears favored to succeed Kline. Appointing Foxx to chair the committee would help insulate House leadership from charges of sexism since Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) of the House Administration Committee is the chamber's only chairwoman.

Foxx is also more conservative than Kline, another factor likely to weigh in her favor. She has been one of the committee's most vocal members arguing to scale back the federal role in public schools. She has also panned President Barack Obama's free community college proposal, saying the president has a habit of creating programs without a way to pay for them.

The first member of her family to graduate from high school, Foxx is a former president of Maryland Community College. She is chairwoman of the higher education subcommittee.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who is next in seniority after Foxx, said through a spokesman that he is not interested in the chairmanship. “In the long term, Hunter has his eyes set on [Transportation and Infrastructure] and [the House Armed Services Committee]," said Hunter chief of staff Joe Kasper, "not Ed and Workforce.”

In a written statement, Foxx said Kline was "a man of integrity and principle, a representative who has stood for what is right and fought hard to strengthen our nation’s classrooms and workplaces."

Ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Va.), praised Kline for helping to "forge bipartisan agreements on a number of critical issues."

In higher education, Kline helped negotiate a deal with Senate Democrats in 2013 to keep student loan interest rates from doubling. Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, praised Kline's leadership in shepherding "really disparate personalities" on K-12 issues.

Getting No Child Left Behind signed by Obama would not only make Kline an architect of the most significant change to federal education policy in this era, Hess said, it would also potentially open the door for the committee to tackle other bottled-up legislation, like the Higher Education Act reauthorization.

Kline has said his goal is not to reauthorize No Child Left Behind but to replace it with legislation that would reduce "the federal footprint in our schools." He made that statement in February when the committee passed one such bill, the Student Success Act, which cleared the House in July. The bill would streamline federal education programs and allow federal money to follow students to public schools of their choice.

The bill was widely criticized by House Democrats, who said it abdicated the federal government’s role in protecting poor, minority and disabled children. The GOP's conservative wing, meanwhile, said it didn’t go far enough in handing control of schools back to districts and states.

He was able to get it passed 218-213. Soon after House passage, the Senate took up its own version. The two chambers must now work together in conference committee to try to create a bill that Obama won't veto.

The committee also held a series of hearings this year focused on relaxing the Obama administrations’ controversial nutrition standards for school meals, which were championed by Michelle Obama. But so far, it hasn't drafted legislation to change the standards and renew child nutrition programs, even though the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act expires Sept. 30.

https://www.politicopro.com/education/story/2015/09/kline-to-vacate-ed-and-workforce-chair-053356