Baltimore, Md. -- As the President was stepping up his efforts behind reauthorization of his "New Child Left Behind" federal education program, conservative House Members of his own party began speaking out against the measure as they arrived at the House Republican Study Committee retreat here.

"It's a mistake," Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R.-Mich.), a past chairman of the oversight subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee told me this morning, "I was one of the brave and few who voted against 'No Child Left Behind' when it first came up for a vote in 2001. I have not seen anything in the last five years to show it has any redeeming value."

The Michigan lawmaker, who spoke to me shortly before a lunch featuring former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (Hoekstra's candidate for president in '08), went on to say that "No Child Left Behind" was "one of the key reasons Republicans lost their way and voters showed they felt that in '06. We used to support local control of education and abolishing the Department of Education and now we've created the most expansive government intrusion into local education since the Department of Education was created in 1979. What an inconsistency!"

Hoekstra also disputed claims by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and other Bush Administration spokesmen that the Bush-spawned federal education program enhances school vouchers. In his words, "I have read the bill and I would be very surprised if vouchers are in it."

Summarizing the mood at the RSC retreat at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, the Michigan lawmaker said: "It's positive toward the President, but we hate some of his policies. He's not taken us where we want to go on spending, education. And his mismanaged the Iraq War."