Groups Running Up No Child Left Behind Lobbying Tab

Jewel Samad / AFP

President Barack Obama meets with members of Congress in March to discuss renewing the No Child Left Behind education law.

Education groups have spent $47 million lobbying the federal government through the first half of 2011, according to Center for Responsive Politics research, as Congress and the federal education department try to decide how to deal with the long-overdue reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.

The group reports that $3 million more was spent on lobbying in the second quarter of 2011 than the first quarter. Among those paying for lobbyists, the National Education Association teacher’s union spent $3.6 million.