When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002, he heralded a “new era” in American public education.

The new law had lofty goals: to increase student and teacher accountability and success; to funnel billions of dollars into low-income and low-achieving school districts; and to require classrooms to be led by highly qualified teachers. While the law — passed by an overwhelming majority of Congress — pushed schools to do better, it was a dramatic extension of federal authority over state and local school systems.

No more. On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which effectively rewrites Bush’s legislation. Congress approved the education reform bill 85-12 in the Senate and 359-64 in the House.

The rewrite requires teachers and students to be held accountable, but guarantees resources to help schools improve should they fail to meet certain benchmarks. It also reduces the testing burden and increases access to high-quality preschools, among other things.

The notable difference, though, is that it empowers state and local school boards to develop their own improvement methods rather than subscribing to cookie-cutter federal mandates required under No Child Left Behind.

That decentralization of power is one thing members of both parties can support.

“I think the West Virginia education community is going to throw up their hands and say, ‘Finally, Washington’s off our backs. We can create and do the things we know are going to work better for our state,’” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of the legislation on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”

As Congress, teachers unions and other groups praise the passage of this law, it is important to remember there are other aspects where the federal government overreaches and supersedes decision making best left at the state and local levels.

Throughout the years, government has expanded in a way that allows Washington bureaucrats to amass an exceptional amount of power. As a result, one-size-fits-all solutions and mandates burden education, businesses and taxpayers, as well as state and local governments.

Hopefully the decentralization of education policy is just the first step in handing more power back to the states.