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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Mallie Jane Kim
Critics say the bill would leave minorities behind, others say it is still government overreach
In a year of bitterly partisan battles over the budget, debt, and anything else with a deadline, the
But the effort will not be easy.
The proposal already draws steep criticism, both from those who think it strips too many protections for minority and low-income students, and also from those who believe it still represents government overreach. At the heart of the battle, though, is determining whether, and to what extent, the states can be trusted on educational equity. And how large of a role the federal government should play in making sure all students succeed.
"Historically, states did not do what was right," admits Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the
Wilhoit believes it is time for states to be granted more leeway, and he thinks the new bill, is a giant step in that direction. "States have shown, over the last few years, that they are a very different sort of entity than they were a number of years ago," he says.
The fight is already heating up in
The move could be an omen for the bipartisan sponsors of the bill -- Harkin, a Democrat, and Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the committee's ranking member -- who expressed hope they could move the bill onto the
The central policy change is the accountability mechanism. Under No Child Left Behind, 100 percent of students need to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Under Harkin and Enzi's bill, schools would need to demonstrate "continuous improvement" in student outcomes, and in most cases, states would have more discretion over how to intervene in troubled schools. Also, the bill would require states to adopt college- and career-ready standards with the accompanying tests -- most states are already well on their way into doing so -- and it would codify competitive grant programs enacted under the Obama administration, including "Race to the Top," "Investing in Innovation," and "Promise Neighborhoods," which provide funds in exchange for innovations.
But some see the level of discretion states would get under this bill as a dangerous backslide to the days before No Child Left Behind.
"Times change and we need to make some improvements, but this is a wholesale retreat against accountability for every child," says former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who served under President George W. Bush. Spellings decries the lack of specific targets for achievement and accountability that were the foundation of No Child Left Behind, legislation she helped form. Those accountability provisions, she says, were what forced the states to look out for disadvantaged and minority students. "I think they should name the law, 'No Superintendent Left Whining,'" she says. "It makes the noise go away; takes the pressure off."
For those worried
Harkin acknowledged Wednesday that the teacher evaluation provision was dropped to make the bill more bipartisan, giving it a better chance to survive committee negotiations.
Whether states "do a good job with their teacher evaluation systems, or whether they even implement them at all is going to be a matter of chance," says policy analyst Anne Hyslop of Education Sector, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. Hyslop adds that the bill would mean states won't have to ensure teachers at low-income schools are on par with those at high-income schools. "And states and local governments certainly don't have the best track record on equity issues," she says.
But dropping the teacher evaluation piece was a win for those who hope states will be granted maximum trust and flexibility. "If you're going to take promising reform like [teacher evaluation] and turn it into a federal mandate, you're going to kill it," says Michael Petrilli, executive vice president at the right-leaning
Petrilli believes states have advanced over the past 10 to 15 years to earn the trust to do such things on their own, and he says they would likely do it better without a federal mandate. "Partly because of No Child Left Behind, you see the world is a lot different now. You've got bona fide reformers in place in many states," he says, adding that since each state is very different, those state- and school-level reformers should be trusted to try their own methods. And with most school problems, proven over-arching solutions don't exist yet, he explains. "We need to have the humility to say we don't know, and therefore let's let it play out differently in each state and learn from one another," he says, "instead of trying to fight these symbolic battles in D.C. and tie everybody's hands to one approach."
But those who think the new proposal is worse than current law, like Spellings, take comfort
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