Congress Ought to Do Something Radical, Take ESEA Back to Its Original Purpose: Equity
In a news blast last week, the Education Law Center challenged Congress to “compel states to fund schools fairly” in any legislation it might pass to reauthorize the federal education law that we currently call No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Supposedly aides in the relevant House and Senate committees are working on a compromise between very different House and Senate versions passed earlier this year of a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Whether any kind of compromise can be moved forward in the current Congress remains a question.
In pushing Congress to address equity in the reauthorization, the Education Law Center proposes that Congress add an element to the compromise that neither Senate nor House included in the very different bills passed by the two chambers—an element so unthinkable these days that it hasn’t even been part of the conversation. This is, of course, ironic, as the 1965, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (of which NCLB is merely the latest reauthorization) was originally designed as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. The purpose of its largest program, Title I, was to infuse federal funds into schools that serve either a large number or a high percentage of students living in poverty.
Writing of this year’s ESEA reauthorization debate, the Education Law Center points out: “Conspicuously absent from the debate is the critical need for federal policy to motivate the States to fairly fund their public schools. Federal funding accounts for only about 10% of preK-12 funding. The states, through their finance systems, determine the lion’s share of school funding, how it’s distributed, and the mix of state and local revenue. Only a handful of states provide sufficient levels of funding and distribute that funding fairly to address student need as documented in Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card. Many states have been unable or unwilling to make their funding systems more equitable and adequate. It is crucial that federal education policies pressure states to improve funding fairness.”
The Education Law Center references the report of the Equity and Excellence Commissionchartered by Congress itself in 2013, a document that charges: “The common situation in America is that schools in poor communities spend less per pupil—and often many thousands Congress Ought to Do Something Radical, Take ESEA Back to Its Original Purpose: Equity | janresseger: