WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans moved forward Wednesday with a rewrite of GOP President George W. Bush's prized No Child Left Behind Act, pushing a bill that would strip Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his successors of power and give more authority to the states. Members of the Republican-led House Education and the Workforce Committee began to dismantle the existing education law in favor of an alternative they branded the Student Success Act, which would allow state and local school chiefs to decide if students are being well served. Democrats on the panel objected to the proposed revision, saying it shirks Washington's role in guaranteeing support for poor and minority students. Members of the Republican-led panel planned to finish their rewrite on Wednesday and send a fully revamped bill to the full House for a vote in coming weeks. Reducing Washington's role in education is an important plank for the GOP's base, and leaders were eager to show tea partyers they were delivering on promises. "The secretary — or any single federal official — was never intended to have such unprecedented power. And Congress has a responsibility to protect the autonomy of states and school districts," said Rep. Todd Rokita, an Indiana Republican who chairs the subcommittee on early childhood, elementary and secondary education. Republicans and Democrats alike on the panel agreed the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law had problems and said changes were needed. But Democrats objected to the GOP approach that shifts oversight authority to states and sends federal education dollars as a block grants to state leaders to decide how best to spend them. "The Republican bill does a poor job of ensuring all students have access to high quality education," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas. He said students whose primary language is not English, those from poor areas, Native American and Alaskan Native students, and rural schools would suffer. "This is clearly unacceptable at a time when our nation's schools are becoming increasingly diverse," Hinojosa said. Other Democrats criticized the proposal for giving too much preference to charter schools, reducing the amount of data schools would be required to send to Washington and not emphasizing graduation rates. Republicans dismissed those criticisms as distractions and said the bill included those requirements. "As is always the case, it's important to actually sit down and read the legislation," said Rep. John Kline, the Republican chairman of the panel. The latest development followed by less than 24 hours Duncan's statement telling states they could to be given another year before being required to use student test results to decide whether to keep or fire teachers. That requirement was part of a deal many states made with Duncan in exchange for permission to ignore No Child Left Behind. "Instead of helping Congress fix the law, the Obama administration granted 37 states and the District of Columbia temporary, conditional waivers in exchange for implementing the president's preferred reforms," Kline said. "The result expanded federal control and raised serious questions about what the future could hold for our schools." Most of the debate hinged on how much say Washington could have in schools. "I trust the teacher in the classroom a lot more than I trust anyone on this panel," said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. One Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, said he was sympathetic to frustrations with Washington. "I don't think we need to increase the federal role," Polis said. "It's not about reducing or increasing the federal role. It's about a disruptive federal role." But Polis said Washington must guarantee "opportunity reaches every student in every corner of this land." The Democratic-led Senate education panel already finished work on its rewrite of the law. The Senate version also shifted responsibility away from the one-size-fits-all requirements of the existing No Child Left Behind Act and would allow state officials to write their own school improvement plans. But the Senate version still gives the education secretary the authority to approve or reject reform plans. No vote has been scheduled for the Senate proposal. Aides suggested it could be autumn or later before the full Senate votes on that legislation.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude. The new findings by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics improve on numerous prior efforts to quantify the dollars wasted on health care. Numerous experts previously have estimated that tens of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars, could be better used each year to improve patient care and outcomes and to slow down spending by government health programs, insurers and consumers. The institute, part of data analysis and consulting firm IMS Health, used its proprietary data on prescriptions written by doctors — many of which patients never fill — plus other information to produce a current, more reliable estimate of avoidable costs solely related to medication use. IMS arrived at the $213 billion figure based on six categories in which doctors, patients or both could be making better use of medication, from getting a prompt diagnosis when new symptoms arise to taking medicines as directed by the doctor. Across the six categories, the researchers generally focused on spending on a handful of very common or very expensive diseases — from high cholesterol and blood pressure to HIV and diabetes — for which costs of care and complications are well documented. "There's even larger avoidable costs if we were to look at all disease areas" where patients aren't getting optimal care, Murray Aitken, the institute's executive director, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. "There's a big opportunity for improvement." The $213 billion equals nearly 8 percent of the more than $2.7 trillion the U.S. spent on health care last year. Those billions could pay for the health care of more than 24 million Americans currently uninsured, according to IMS. And Aitken said more-appropriate use of medication — taking it exactly as prescribed, not taking antibiotics for viral illnesses, preventing medication errors and the like — could prevent 6 million hospitalizations, 4 million trips to the emergency room and 78 million visits to doctors and other outpatient care providers each year. "Those are staggering numbers," Aitken said. The report, titled "Avoidable Costs in Healthcare," found the biggest area of waste is patients not taking medicines prescribed by their doctor, either at all or as directed. IMS estimates the cost of such "non-adherence" at about $105 billion a year. Reasons for the longstanding problem include patients fearing drug side effects, not understanding complications that can occur without treatment, having mental health issues and not being able to afford their medicines. Price has become less of a factor, though, as there are now relatively inexpensive generic versions of drugs for most diseases. "I think there's really good, solid evidence that if you adhere to medications, that keeps you out of the hospital," said M. Christopher Roebuck, president of health policy consultants Rx Economics LLC. Roebuck, who was not involved in the study, said it's well done. But he said the estimates of potential savings are "quite conservative" for medication non-adherence and treatment delays. Those delays are blamed for racking up about $39 billion a year in avoidable care costs — due to patients putting off doctor visits and not getting medications they're prescribed, or doctors not promptly starting treatments proven to prevent expensive complications. "We've got a lot of people without insurance who are not routinely going to the doctor, and even some with insurance aren't," Aitken said. Other areas of waste noted in the report include: — Prescribing antibiotics inappropriately, as for patients with the flu or another viral infection, costing about $35 billion annually. This can contribute to bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics, resulting in more expensive treatment and even hospitalization with a future infection. — Medication errors, costing about $20 billion annually. Those include sloppy handwriting leading to the wrong drug or dose being dispensed and doctors not checking to see that the patient is getting better, meaning they've been getting the right medicine. Those errors are on the decline due to more doctors using electronic prescriptions and other changes. — Not using generic drugs when they are available, costing about $12 billion annually. That's a decreasing problem, as strategies of health plans and pharmacies encourage patients to choose generics by setting copayments for brand-name drugs a few times higher than for the generics. Without insurance, generics can cost 90 percent less than brand-name drugs. Today, when a generic is available, it's dispensed about 95 percent of the time. — Multiple medication confusion, costing about $1.3 billion annually. For elderly patients taking five or more medicines, it's easy to mix up which pills should be taken when, and for those who are frail, those mistakes can cause serious harm. That problem likely will grow significantly with our aging population. The report will be shared with government, medical and policy groups and other stakeholders in the health system, Aitken said. The institute, whose clients include major drugmakers, noted that its report was prepared without funding from government or the pharmaceutical industry.

ATLANTA — State education officials have announced they've developed courses for a new education model geared toward helping students find potential career paths. Officials from the Georgia Department of Education say the career clusters framework will allow students to choose one of 17 career pathways based on what they'd like to study in college. The pathways range from business management and administration to world languages and are based on a set of core curriculum and electives. The General Assembly voted in 2011 to allow the Department of Education to implement the career pathways program. State School Superintendent John Barge says the "new career pathways will keep students engaged and on the road to graduation." He said many students drop out of school because they can't connect classroom experiences to practical applications.