An overhaul of federal education policy is set to advance in the Senate after the latest bout of gridlock ended Tuesday. With passage of a human trafficking bill expected soon, the Senate will vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination for attorney general. When those two major issues are cleared, the Senate should have time before Memorial Day to debate, amend and vote on the first federal education overhaul since No Child Left Behind was signed in 2002.
Incredibly, the new reform bill passed with unanimous support from the 22-member Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Committee members hold a wide range of ideologies, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
As it stands, the bill would still require students be tested annually in math and English from grades three through eight, and tested once more sometime between grades nine and 12. However, states would have more power to decide how to hold schools accountable for their test scores and would be able to evaluate schools and teachers using other measures as well. The federal government would also be prohibited from determining state standards, as some have accused it of doing with Common Core. It also allows states to use federal money for early childhood education, if they so choose.
On the Senate floor, amendments will have to pass a 60-vote threshold for passage, unlike the simple majority required in committee. Furthermore, in the interest of ensuring the bill would pass out of committee, Senators delayed controversial amendments for debate on the Senate floor. For example, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., held off on an amendment that would allow low-income students to use their federal education funding at any school they choose.
Combined, the 60-vote threshold and deferral of controversial amendments means the bill will likely see plenty of political posturing but few significant changes. Debate on the full Senate floor also means plenty of potential 2016 candidates can use debate to make statements on controversial education topics from school choice to Common Core. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are all potential or declared presidential candidates who will get their first chance at joining the legislative process on the education bill.
While few think the bill is ideal, the bill has support across the ideological spectrum from those who agree it is better than no reform. The American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Business Roundtable, Third Way, Teach for America, and other prominent national organizations all back the bill. That, and the 22-0 committee vote, make it seem likely the bill will pass the full Senate with at least 60 votes.
Still, all that support means little in the House of Representatives, where a more conservative reform bill never got a vote on the full house floor — partly because the reforms were not conservative enough. It’s possible the moderate Senate bill never gets a vote in the more-conservative House of Representatives.
This is what occurred with an immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013 — it passed the Senate after vigorous debate but never even got a vote in the House of Representatives. However, the urgency of trying to help students in struggling schools and reduce the power of Obama’s Department of Education might spur House Republicans to action.
On the off chance a bill similar to the current one gets through the Senate and the House, the Obama administration has announced tepid support for the proposed reforms. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded improvements in the bill but called for more accountability measures. Even so, any compromise bill that would pass the House and Senate would reduce Obama’s executive power through the Department of Education. At some late point in the legislative process, the administration may add something unreasonably liberal to their list of demands to maintain that executive power, if only for a year and a half longer.
With a long, narrow path to final approval, it still seems less than likely that federal education reform will happen this year. If the current push for reform fails, don’t expect to see a new push until the next session of Congress and a new president takes office in 2017. Even then, the odds of reform will vary widely depending on who is elected. Until then, students, teachers, parents, and administrators will have to live under the constraints of a law that was supposed to be rewritten in 2007.
