Jeb Bush to Duncan: Set High Bar for State NCLB Waivers
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has yet to spell out the exact standards he would use in deciding whether states get waivers from the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act—a step he says he will take if Congress doesn't get moving in reauthorizing the law.
In the meantime, Jeb Bush is offering the secretary some advice.
The former Florida governor, whose education policies have won praise from some state leaders, especially fellow Republicans, writes in a Politico op-ed this week that Duncan should consider giving waivers to states that agree to move to A-F school grading systems. That model differs from the more pass/fail-oriented approach used by NCLB.
Bush knows the school-grading system well: He pioneered it during his tenure as Florida's governor, from 1999