Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Tuesday announced opposition to a bill that would return more power over schools to the states, reinforcing the Obama administration’s determination to maintain its increased role in education.
The Obama administration has been criticized by conservatives for acting as a “national school board,” as Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has called it.
Since No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001, schools have been subject to adequate yearly progress standards that measure student success. Failure to achieve adequate yearly progress has subjected schools to corrective actions that increase in consecutive years if standards go unmet.
With schools in many states unable to meet the standards, Duncan began to grant waivers from No Child Left Behind. However, the waivers had strings attached so that states had to operate under different standards favored by the Obama administration.
Using the waivers, Duncan can dictate what state standards are and how they are measured. He gets to define school failure and the effects of failure in states that get waivers. Duncan has expanded the reach of the federal government so far into the classroom that he even gets to decide how teachers are evaluated.
As Alexander pointed out in a hearing Tuesday, the process for getting a waiver is incredibly burdensome. “In Tennessee, that waiver application was 91 pages long with more than 170 pages of attachments,” Alexander said. “Since 2012, the state has had to submit eight different updates or amendments to the plan. In addition to all this, the U.S. Department of Education spends another $9-10 billion or so on about 90 different programs that are either authorized or funded under No Child Left Behind, with separate application and program requirements.”
Despite the complicated and difficult requirements, 42 states are operating under Obama administration waivers. That so many states prefer waivers instead of No Child Left Behind shows how poorly the federal role in education progressed under No Child Left Behind.
With members of Congress on both sides of the aisle looking to reform the outdated No Child Left Behind Act, the administration has a clear interest in making sure reform doesn’t pass. As the burdens of No Child Left Behind rise, Duncan gains power over states hoping to get a waiver from the administration.
Duncan said the language of the new bill, called the Student Success Act, “sends the message that ensuring a quality education for every child isn’t a national responsibility.”
A quality education may be a national responsibility, but it’s a responsibility best met through school control by local leaders who know students best.
As Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said in a press release on the Student Success Act, “This proposal provides an opportunity to chart a new course, one that places less faith in the Department of Education and more faith in the parents and education leaders who know best how to address the needs of their children.”
It was already unlikely the Obama administration would support education reform that gets through the Republican Congress. But with the incentive to maintain special executive power of education, it would be surprising to see Duncan support a bill bipartisan enough to pass the Senate.
