Tell Congress: Vote NO on H.R. 5 – The Student Success Act http://bit.ly/1JwDIz3
No Child Left Behind reauthorization: Restore state and local control of education
Who should be in charge of your child's education? You? Or a government bureaucrat? We may not be hearing that question being asked enough as Congress considers reauthorizing No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the largest federal law governing K-12 education policy. But we should be.
Yet the proposed changes to the law offered so far fail to adequately reduce federal intervention in education. They represent a missed opportunity to advance reforms that restore state and local control of education and put parents in the driver's seat when it comes to directing their children's education.
Consider this: For roughly 10 percent of all funding spent on K-12 education, the U.S. Department of Education determines policy for almost everything - from teacher certification and school assessment schedules to the types of programs funding is spent on, and how much states must spend in order to access federal funds.
When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the precursor to No Child Left Behind) was signed into law by President Johnson in 1965, it included five titles, 32 pages, and roughly $1 billion in federal funding ($7 billion today).
By the time the law was reauthorized for the seventh time in 2001 (as NCLB), new mandates had been imposed on states and local school districts, and many more programs had been added. Today NCLB exceeds 600 pages, authorizes some 80 programs, and spends $24 billion annually.
Dissatisfaction with NCLB has grown too. Indeed, the Obama administration has offered waivers to states chafing under the law's provisions. But there's a price. The White House is conditioning these waivers on the adoption of its preferred education agenda, which includes common standards and tests, outside the normal legislative process.
To restore state, local and parental control of education, any reauthorization should do five things:
1) It should allow states to opt out of the programs that fall under NCLB, through language included in the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act. The A-PLUS Act enables states to lead on education reform by directing how their education dollars are spent. Such an opt-out is No Child Left Behind reauthorization: Restore local control of education - LINDSEY M. BURKE - Newsday:
Tell Congress: Vote NO on H.R. 5 – The Student Success Act http://bit.ly/1JwDIz3