ESEA Reauthorization Moving Forward: House Appoints Conference Committee Members
House, Senate, and, likely, White House negotiations regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have been happening behind the scenes since roughly late September. It seems that a single bill has been negotiated out of the House version, the Student Success Act (SSA) and the Senate version, the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), both of which were passed in July 2015.
Word is that the negotiated version looks more like ECAA than SSA. One of the major differences between the two bills involves the issue of opting out of federally mandated standardized testing. SSA declared the right of parents to opt out; ECAA leaves it up to states to decide upon opt out rules.
In July 2015, I wrote about opt out language in both SSA and ECAA. However, I will not comment further on the now-negotiated, SSA-ECAA version until I am able to see the text. Moreover, that negotiated version will next go before a House and Senate conference committee, where it could be further modified before heading to both houses for a vote. (In this July 2015 post, I offer more discussion regarding the issue of the conference committee process.)
And that conference committee is moving forward. According to this November 17, 2015, House Education and the Workforce press release, House Speaker Ryan has made the committee appointments:
House Moves Toward K-12 Education Conference Committee
Speaker Ryan appoints House Republican confereesWASHINGTON, D.C. | November 17, 2015 – House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) issued the following statement today after the House of Representatives approved a motion to go to conference on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Actand Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) appointed House Republican conferees:Today, the House took an important step forward in our effort to improve K-12ESEA Reauthorization Moving Forward: House Appoints Conference Committee Members | deutsch29:
