Miriam Kurtzig Freedman
“Flexibility” is education’s new buzzword. Check out all those No Child Left Behind Act waivers, providing flexibility to states, while we await Congress’s NCLB reauthorization. Twenty-six states already have those waivers. More are expected.
In approving a batch of them, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “We all understand that the best ideas don’t come from Washington, and moving forward, these states will have increased flexibility with federal funds and relief from NCLB mandates, allowing them to develop locally tailored solutions to meet unique educational challenges.” (emphasis added)
Hmm. What about some flexibility for special education, the most regulated and rigid public education mandated program, while we await the next reauthorization of the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), the nation’s
Program that helps young students adjust to school is in jeopardy - by Susan Frey
Gov. Jerry Brown’s line-item veto last month of $15 million for a two-decade-old program addressing mental health needs among elementary school children has left districts that relied on the funds with hard choices about whether to keep the program going. The Early Mental Health Initiative uses unstructured play and social skills instruction to help shy, misbehaving, or otherwise at-risk...
