Congress Fails – Again – This time on the re-write of National Education Policy
The George W. Bush/Barak Obama legacy of destroying public education in the United States will continue thanks to the “bi-partisan” re-write of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Now called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Republican and Democratic Leaders, along with the Corporate Education Reform Industry and the leadership of the teacher’s unions are heralding the new system which continues the effort to privatize public education, turn schools into little more than testing factories and undermine teachers and the teaching profession.
The most substantive difference is that rather than the federal government “mandating” these dangerous and damaging policies, the federal government will “mandate” that the States do the dirty work in their own name.
Both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate will be voting on the Every Student Succeeds Act in the coming days. The President will certainly sign the legislation since it ensure the education reform industry continues to drain off billions of dollars in scarce public funds.
The following are links to some of the latest articles on the bill;
Warning! ESSA Threatens Special Education (From Diane Ravitch)How schools would be judged under ‘Every Student Succeeds,’ the new No Child Left Behind (From Washington Post)The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): More Observations (From Mercedes Schneider)ESEA Reauthorization – Ramming Through a Bad Deal for America’s Children (From Truth in American Education)BATs Respond to Every Student Succeeds Act (Report from the BATs organization)
Numerous questions about the impact of the new law remain but on the opt-out issue it Congress Fails – Again – This time on the re-write of National Education Policy - Wait What?: