Obama Administration Presses Forward with Backdoor Education Reform Agenda | Education & the Workforce Committee

Obama Administration Presses Forward with Backdoor Education Reform Agenda | Education & the Workforce Committee

Obama Administration Presses Forward with Backdoor Education Reform Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. | August 19, 2011 -

Since the 112^th Congress began eight short months ago, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce has made great progress on advancing a series of reform bills to overhaul current elementary and secondary education law.

Already, the committee has approved three key pieces of legislation designed to reduce federal barriers, encourage innovation, and promote excellence in the nation's classrooms. This fall, Chairman John Kline (R-MN) will complete this package of reforms with legislation that improves teacher effectiveness and modernizes the law’s outdated accountability system.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration seems determined to override Congressional efforts to reform the law and enact a backdoor education agenda. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan continues to push forward an ill-conceived plan to offer states and school districts waivers in exchange for reforms rooted not in the law but in the secretary’s own education agenda. Despite Chairman Kline’s efforts to gain more details about what these conditional waivers may