Education Week - January 15, 2014 - 19

Reauthorization Proves Elusive for Federal Education Laws
UP FOR RENEWAL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
well as the politically ticklish Higher
Education Act. And the main law authorizing
child-care programs hasn't
had a face-lift since 1996.
Lawmakers themselves can't even
agree on whether this session of
Congress is likely to be productive.
Rep. John Kline, the Minnesota
Republican who chairs the House
education committee, expresses optimism
about the prospects for a number
of measures. Those laws include
the Education Sciences Reform Act,
or ESRA, which governs education
research policy, as well as renewals
of career and technical education
legislation and the HEA, which deals
with teacher education and collegepreparatory
programs such as Upward
Bound.
"These things aren't happening
easily, and quickly, but it doesn't
mean we're not continuing to work,"
Mr. Kline said in a recent interview.
And even if lawmakers fall short
of completing their tasks, he expects
that negotiations this year could
help inform work on the measures
down the road.
"We'd like to get some [bills] done
this year, and where we can't, we'd
like them all teed up in the House
and Senate so that [we] can move
very quickly in the next Congress,"
he said, after the 2014 midterm elections.

But in an interview, the top Democrat
on the committee, Rep. George
Miller of California, painted a much
darker political picture. In particular,
he sees conservative Republicans'
skepticism about the federal role in
education as a major stumbling block
to collaboration.
"This is not really a legislating
Congress," said Mr. Miller, who has
worked across the aisle on multiple
pieces of legislation, including the
No Child Left Behind Act, which became
law 12 years ago this month.
"A good chunk of their caucus
doesn't think that the federal government
should be involved [in education]
at all," he said of the House
Republicans.
Finishing the reauthorization of
the ESEA by the end of the Obama
administration is a long shot, he
added.
Funding Issues
It's possible that Congress could
bypass the politically toxic reauthorization
of the ESEA to focus instead on
lower-profile bills, such as a rewrite of
the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical
Education Act. That law, last
renewed in 2006, governs the largest
federal program for high schools.
The House has held hearings on
the measure, and Senate Democratic
aides have had early discussions
with GOP staff members on a
process for a reauthorization. The
Senate education committee hopes
to move it through the committee at
some point this year.
But there are political barriers to
even the most wonkish bills.
House lawmakers came close to
agreement on a reauthorization of
the ESRA law, typically a politically
Federal laws that underlie
high-profile, long-standing
education programs remain
up for reauthorization in
Congress-and in many
cases are long overdue for
a rewrite.
low-key piece of legislation dealing
with education research. But the two
sides hit an impasse when it came to
authorization levels, which set recommended
annual spending for programs
and aren't considered binding.
House Republicans wanted to
freeze ESRA authorization levels at
fiscal 2012 levels. But that didn't fly
with House Democrats, who argued
that a freeze would give the program
no room to grow.
The dissolution of talks last month
disappointed advocates who had been
hoping that bipartisan ESRA negotiations
could set the stage for further
collaboration on bigger bills, including
the ESEA law, the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, and
the Higher Education Act, which was
last renewed in 2008.
"We had been hoping that ESRA
would break the logjam" on education
legislation, said Michele
McLaughlin, the president of the
Knowledge Alliance, a nonprofit
organization in Washington that
advocates greater use of research in
education policy, and a former aide
to Democrats on the Senate education
committee.
Instead, the breakdown in bipartisan
collaboration underscored the
political divisions that have made it
tough to get almost anything done in
"
Carl D. Perkins Career and
Technical Education Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs vocational
education programs and is the
largest federal program for high
schools.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 2006. House education
committee has held public
hearings on the issue.
Child Care and Development
Block Grant Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs major
child-care grants.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 1996. Senate education
committee unanimously
approved a bipartisan
reauthorization last summer. It is
awaiting floor action. No action
in the House so far.
Education Sciences
Reform Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs the Institute
of Education Sciences.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 2002. House education
committee has held hearings on
the issue.
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs Title I
and other key K-12 education
programs. Most recent iteration
is the No Child Left Behind Act.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed in
2002. In July, the House passed
a reauthorization that received
only GOP support. The Senate
education committee approved
its own bill to renew the law in
June. It received only Democratic
support.
Head Start Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs a nearly $8
billion program that offers earlychildhood
education services to
low-income families.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 2007. Neither the House nor
Senate has held hearings on
reauthorization in this Congress.
But Democratic leaders on the
House and Senate education
committees have introduced a
bipartisan bill that would expand
preschool to more 4-year-olds.
Higher Education Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs teacher
education programs, as well
as student financial aid and
college-access programs.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 2008. The House and Senate
education committees have each
held hearings on the issue.
Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs special
education programs.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 2004. Neither the House nor
Senate education committee has
held hearings on reauthorization
in this Congress.
Workforce Investment Act
WHAT IT DOES: Governs job-training
programs.
WHERE IT STANDS: Last renewed
in 1998. The House passed a
reauthorization in March, with
only two Democrats voting in
favor. The Senate education
committee approved a bipartisan
version of the legislation in July.
SOURCE: Education Week
That's not to say the first session of
this Congress was entirely fruitless.
In March, the House of Representatives
passed a reauthorization
of the Workforce Investment Act,
which governs adult education, with
mostly GOP support.
The Senate Health, Education,
We absolutely
need Congress to
establish a vision
and expectations
for education."
TERRY HOLLIDAY
Kentucky Commissioner of Education
and President of the Council of Chief
State School Officers
Congress over the past three years.
And it highlighted a sticking point
that may arise again as lawmakers
seek movement on the wide range of
legislation awaiting renewal: Congress
will have to agree on authorization
levels for each of those bills.
"If they can't resolve silly issues
like that, it's hard to see how they
ever get anything done," said Vic
Klatt, a former longtime aide to
Republicans on the House education
committee who now works as
a principal at the Penn Hill Group,
a government-relations firm in
Washington.
Labor, and Pensions Committee also
approved its own bipartisan renewal
of that law and a reauthorization of
the Child Care and Development
Block Grant, which governs grants
to help low-income parents cover the
cost of child care. That legislation
hasn't been renewed since 1996 and
is the education bill best positioned
to proceed to the floor of the Senate
soon, said an aide to Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, the chairman of the HELP
committee.
Divisive Legislation
Both Sen. Harkin and Sen. Lamar
Alexander of Tennessee, the top
Republican on the committee, see
potential for movement this year,
particularly on the workforce-investment
and child-care-grant laws. Each
pointed out that the Senate committee
has had a relatively productive
year in a relatively unproductive
Congress, getting 10 bills over the
finish line, many of which had to do
with other areas of its jurisdiction,
such as health and labor.
"Basically, the HELP committee has
worked hard and in a bipartisan way,
even when we disagreed, producing
important legislation that has passed
the Congress," Sen. Alexander said in
an email to Education Week.
Still, a more divisive piece of legislation
remains one of Sen. Har-
kin's highest education priorities: A
sweeping measure to entice states
to expand their prekindergarten offerings.
That legislation, which was
introduced by Sen. Harkin and Rep.
Miller, is based on a proposal floated
by President Obama in his State of
the Union address last year.
The pre-K bill has drawn a cou-
ple of GOP co-sponsors in the House,
but its $27 billion price tag over
the first five years means it's likely
to be roundly rejected by most
Republicans.
Rep. Kline also touted a narrower
bill for the reauthorization of the
National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, which President
Obama signed in September.
And Rep. Kline pointed to other
accomplishments over the past
year, including student-lending legislation
based on a proposal by the
Obama administration and congressional
Republicans to tie studentloan
rates more closely to market
forces. But advocates note that the
legislation was completed under
duress, since lawmakers were trying
to reverse an unpopular hike in
student-loan rates.
ESEA Prospects
Even though Congress wasn't able
to renew the ESEA last year, Rep.
Kline sees House passage of a version
of the law in July as a major accomplishment.
The measure got no
Democratic votes, but he contends
that because it drew broad support
from a diverse Republican caucus, its
chances of eventually gaining bipartisan
traction were bolstered.
Rep. Miller, however, counters that
the measure failed to win support
from the business community, the
civil rights community, and some
organizations, such as the National
Education Association, representing
practitioners.
Meanwhile, in June, the Senate
education committee approved its
own version of the ESEA, which passed
with only Democratic support.
Like other legislation, the ESEA
doesn't need to be reauthorized for
Congress to continue to finance the
programs it governs, such as Title
I grants to districts. But programs
can become outdated and ineffective,
making it less likely that congressional
appropriators, who control
the purse strings, will want to
pour scarce dollars into them.
The situation could become even
more complicated down the road,
since both chambers' education committees
could have new chairmen
when the next Congress begins, in
2015. Control of the two houses is up
for grabs in the November elections.
The gavel is certain to turn over
in the Senate, since this will be Sen.
Harkin's last year in Congress. Retirement
could give Mr. Harkin an additional
incentive to bring legislation
to the finish line, Mr. Klatt said. On
the other hand, negotiations on bills
still pending after this year may need
to restart once a new chairman is in
place, potentially with a new staff.
For their part, educators are hop-
ing that some of the bills will be
completed before any changes in
committee leadership occur.
"I hope we're not having this same
conversation again next January,"
said Mr. Holliday, the Kentucky
state chief.
EDUCATION WEEK | January 15, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 19
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Education Week - January 15, 2014

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