Education Secretary Arne Duncan would see his authority greatly cut and governors would have final say over their schools under Republican-sponsored legislation.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Senate education panel and a former education secretary, on Thursday rolled out the GOP's version of No Child Left Behind renewal days after Democrats introduced theirs. While both parties' versions include provisions that let states write school improvement plans and scrap one-size-fits-all national requirements, only the Republican one explicitly says Washington has no role in what students learn.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Alexander says he wants to stop the federal government from deciding which schools and teachers are succeeding and which are failing. He says governors know better than education secretaries what works.