Obama Admin Says It Won’t Support Senate ESEA Draft; Higher Ed Wants Those “Higher Standards”
There is a lot of info in this post. I could not capture it all in the title. All quotes are from Politico’s Morning Education for July 07, 2015, which has much more to it than I highlight in this post.
Diving in:
In Politico on July 06, 2015, US Secretary of Ed Arne Duncan continued with the narrative of being pleased with the Senate ESEA draft, which seriously limits the power of the US secretary of ed. Looks like the White House tune is a-changing:
— The White House weighs in: The Obama administration said Monday it’s not supporting the Senate bill — but White House officials stopped short of saying they’d issue a veto threat, as they did over the House bill. More:http://politico.pro/1NMLgME.
Then comes the whole “civil rights issue”: For some groups, the federal strong arm and annual testing are a must to ensure “civil rights”; for others, those overbearing tests are a civil punishment, not a “right”:
CIVIL RIGHTS BATTLE COMES TO CAPITOL HILL: A debate is raging in the states over what civil rights means in modern schools — and it’s on a collision course with Capitol Hill, where both the House and the Senate will move on their rewrites of No Child Left Behind today. The problem: Factions can’t agree on what a good civil rights bill looks like. Many Democrats and education reformers embrace the strong federal education system at NCLB’s core, saying it helps protect minority children. But others argue that approach has led to a “test-and-punish” atmosphere in schools, effectively holding minority students back while drowning them in hours of testing each year. Meanwhile, Republicans including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) argue that school choice is crucial for helping minority students.
Ted Cruz needs to study up on school choice as a means of incredible fiscal scandal, if nothing else. Financial scams only serve the scammers. (See this link for a telling report on charter school scandals.)
Continuing with testing and “civil rights”:
— The rift over testing and accountability is shredding ties between groups that are typically allies. “Politically, it’s cannibalism,” said Charles Barone, director of policy for Democrats for Education Reform, which supports annual testing. The Senate bill, which has support from many Democrats who consider themselves strong proponents on civil rights, has lost the support of the county’s largest civil rights coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The group wants changes to the bill in the form of amendments, which are being hashed out behind closed doors by DemocratsObama Admin Says It Won’t Support Senate ESEA Draft; Higher Ed Wants Those “Higher Standards” | deutsch29: