In December of 2015, Congress did something rare: It passed a law, with bipartisan support, that President Obama signed and conservatives are championing. The Every Students Succeeds Act, known as ESSA, rolls back federal authority in local schools and limits the reach of the secretary of education. Yet the bill received unanimous support of Democrats in both houses of Congress, as well as support from most Republicans. The law aims to replace the widely loathed, crippling “cookie-cutter” testing regulations imposed by No Child Left Behind, and it’s being implemented for the first time this school year—the first test for ESSA’s efficacy. But some of its conservative supporters say they’re worried the reforms could be hampered if Republicans lose control of Congress.
Indeed, the law’s future may be uncertain given the interpretative license available to whichever party wins the White House and Senate. “The next administration has the constitutional responsibility for ensuring that the law is enforced,” Education Secretary John King told reporters Wednesday in response to concerns about shifting interpretation of the law. Not yet fully field tested, ESSA is still basically a bipartisan victory—because Democrats and Republicans remain free to interpret it differently.
Frederick Hess, a director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, called ESSA “a smashing educational triumph” and a grand coup for conservatives, when it became law back in December. When Hess heralded its passage, writing in National Review, he pointed out that the law clearly forbids the secretary’s adding “new criteria” or “requirements,” and the programs the administration touts as policy achievements are, in fact, not new.
But the Obama administration has nevertheless spun the law as high point of this president’s legacy. The spin continues. “This administration has really championed, from the beginning, higher standards,” Secretary King said. “The ESSA law includes a provision at sets well standards that will ensure students are ready to do accredited course work when they graduate high school.” ESSA cannot be both a decentralizing conservative coup and, as King casts it, a law to support and solidify common standards. Which it will be depends entirely on who takes the reins.
Currently, there’s battle unfolding over whether ESSA allows Secretary King to regulate state and local school spending. (He thinks it does, but conservatives say it doesn’t.) Although the funding question will fall to the courts, the stakes for faithful implementation may depend on election outcomes. “If Trump gets elected, this executive overreach is near certain to be tossed,” said Manhattan Institute’s Max Eden, a scholar of King’s campaign against the law’s intent.
And, while Congress remains the so-called super school board, the highest stakes for determining ESSA’s interpretation and broader effectiveness will be determined in down-ballot races. The next Congress will decide whether to guard the deregulating policy package, which expressly serves the public interest, given that 56 percent prefer their local school boards’ authority.
As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander has differed from the Obama administration and Secretary King regarding ESSA’s intent. And, according to Andy Smarick, who worked in Department of Education under President George W. Bush, Alexander’s lens on the law has made all the difference. In crafting the law, his team worked to anticipate—and block—whatever opportunities an Education secretary might find to meddle in state and local schools.
“If the Senate were to flip,” Smarick cautioned, “We could see the implementation of ESSA look a whole lot more like [No Child Left Behind] than what a lot of Republicans in Congress think the Elementary and Secondary Education Act should look like.”
And if indeed the Senate were to flip, current HELP committee member Bernie Sanders, who has had a prominent role in shaping Hillary Clinton’s education policy, might take Alexander’s position as chairman.
In other words, administrative spin could become legislative reality if the American people vote in elected officials committed to preserving, or ramping up, this president’s fictional legacy.
