House strongly backs plan to overhaul education policy

Guidelines within the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaces the highly unpopular No Child Left Behind, will put decisions regarding accountability, school turnarounds, and teacher evaluations in the hands of individual states, additionally curbing the federal government’s ability to promote uniform standards, like Common Core.

Washington, DC -Today, U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (PA-05) voted in favor the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, which passed the House with bipartisan support.

Gives states power to decide whether to use student test scores to assess teachers and schools.

A conference committee hammered out the changes.

“Parents, teachers, and state and local school leaders support this bill because they know it will restore local control and help get Washington out of our classrooms”, Kline said.

The measure gives them flexibility on how they spend those dollars.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan also praised passage of the bill, which he said would codify the vision of giving a fair shot at a great education to every child in America, regardless of zip code.

The bill is expected to be approved by the Senate and signed by the president this month. But that proposal was not included in the ultimate bill reconciling the House and Senate versions. However the bill would retain the testing requirement within the 2002 No Child Left Behind law in that many parents, teachers & school districts abhor.

Under the bill, the Education Department would see a much-diminished role and no longer be able to sanction schools that fail to improve.

It attempts to shrink the federal government’s role in schools to appease conservatives, while still comparing the performances of states and individual schools for progressives.

Under pressure from governors and school districts, the Obama administration since 2011 has been issuing waivers from mandates in the original law like requiring all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

On Common Core, the compromise bill says the Education Department may not mandate nor give states incentives to adopt or maintain any particular set of academic standards.

Democratic Rep. Sean Maloney of Cold Spring described the bill as “taking steps to fix the broken policies of No Child Left Behind”.

Common Core standards are more rigorous, but it’s up to local schools how they want to design curriculum to enable students to do well on Common Core tests, she said. Funding for magnet schools could rise 18.4 percent, grants for charters schools could increase 18.5 percent, Title 1 school improvement grants could rise by 8.5 percent in 2020 and impact aid that compensates districts with large tax-exempt federal properties could rise by 7.8 percent.

Therein lies the risk of needed reforms falling victim to local politics, inertia and the vested interests of teachers unions, school bureaucracies and others.