Unions Say CORE Waiver Creates 'Privatized Shadow' Education System
This week, the nine California districts that are applying for their own tailor-made No Child Left Behind waiver met with officials from the U.S. Department of Education to try to seal the deal. Time is of the essence because districts need to make important decisions about the 2013-14 school year—such as whether to contract with tutoring providers under the existing NCLB—that would be affected by a waiver.
How did the meetings go? Rick Miller, the executive director of the California Office to Reform Education (or CORE), told me: "We're still talking and working through technical areas in our request. ED staff has been clarifying comments and making suggestions for us to consider. Overall it's been quite helpful and productive."
No word yet on who exactly they met with at the federal department. (Miller wouldn't say.)
One of the biggest problems likely giving federal officials pause is the lack of support from the local teachers' unions, which wrote a highly critical letter to CORE officials.
The nine unions say they don't like NCLB, but like the CORE waiver plan even less. They say it allows CORE "to establish and operate a privatized 'shadow' system of education in California,
