Education Department Drops Fight Over School Money
The U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn a proposal that could have fundamentally changed the flow of federal dollars to schools that serve low-income students.
"The law is clear that it is unacceptable to systematically underfund low-income schools and fill the hole with federal resources," explained Dorie Turner Nolt, a spokeswoman for the education department. "While we worked tirelessly to put forward a regulation that implements that simple requirement and to incorporate the extensive feedback we received, we ultimately did not have time to publish a strong final regulation that lives up to the promise of the law."
This brings to an end a long and bitter fight between the Education Department, led by Secretary John B. King, Jr., and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, himself a former education secretary and current chairman of the Senate committee that handles education.
"This is an intolerable situation," Alexander said of the Department's so-called "supplement-not-supplant" proposal back in May, in a heated speech on the Senate floor. "If the regulations are not consistent with the law, I don't believe [states] should follow them," he said. "If the department persists, then the state should go to court to sue the department."
Why was Alexander so angry?
The easy answer: Title I. That's the $15 billion the federal government sends to districts to help schools that serve lots of low-income students.
Alexander and King disagreed on how to enforce the new law governing Title I. It says that, to get federal money, districts have to prove a few things — among them, that Education Department Drops Fight Over School Money : NPR Ed : NPR: