Education Week - April 22, 2015 - 20

Renewal Watch: ESEA
Senate Bill Overhauling ESEA Clears Committee Hurdle
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
lack of protections for the most disadvantaged
students.
Nancy Zirkin, the executive vice
president and director of policy at
the Leadership Conference on Civil
and Human Rights, an umbrella
group of more than 200 organizations,
criticized the bill in a statement
for generally rolling back accountability,
not requiring enough
data reporting, not ensuring the equitable
distribution of educational
resources, and weakening the education
secretary's authority.
"If this bill is not fixed on the Senate
floor, we could be forced to oppose
it," Ms. Zirkin said.
Civil rights groups got some backup
from U.S. Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan.
"Every family and every community
deserve to know that schools are helping
all children succeed-including
low-income students, racial and ethnic
minorities, students with disabilities,
and students learning English," said
Mr. Duncan in a statement. "And they
deserve to know that if students in
those groups fall behind, their schools
will take steps to improve, with the
strongest action in the lowest-performing
5 percent of schools."
The two national teachers' unions
continued to sing different tunes in
reacting to the bill, with the American
Federation of Teachers more
eager to embrace it than the National
Education Association.
"While not perfect-no compromise
is-it restores the law's original
intent to address poverty and educational
inequality with targeted funding
for poor children," said aft President
Randi Weingarten. "It moves
away from the counterproductive
focus on sanctions and high-stakes
tests, and ends federalized teacher
evaluations and school closings."
The nea took a more cautious
tack, with President Lily Eskelsen
Garciá saying in a statement that
she would "continue to call on senators
to go even further in helping
each and every student, particularly
those in poverty and with the greatest
educational needs."
Headed Forward
If the bill gets called to the Senate
floor, senators will offer many of the
contentious amendments that they
filed during the committee markup,
but either never offered or offered
and then withdrew.
Chief among those will be proposals
from Republicans to allow Title
I dollars for low-income students
to follow students to the public
or private schools of their choice,
and proposals from Democrats to
strengthen the accountability system
by requiring states to identify
their poorest-performing schools.
Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rand
Paul, R-Ky., for example, filed a slew
of amendments (some that overlapped)
that would have allowed
Title I money to follow students, and
they plan to offer and debate them if
the bill moves to the floor.
On the other hand, Democrats,
MOVING AHEAD
The more-than 600-page compromise measure to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act approved by the Senate education committee last week leaves intact major elements of the
law's existing version, the No Child Left Behind Act, but would make changes in others areas.
The bill, called the "Every Child Achieves Act of 2015," now heads to the Senate floor.
5 TAKEAWAYS
n Would maintain the annual federal testing requirement
n Would allow states to create their own accountability
systems
n Would maintain the requirement that states report
disaggregated data to highlight achievements of
subgroups of students
n Would not allow Title I dollars for low-income students
to follow students to the public or private school of their
choice
n Would maintain the requirement that states adopt
challenging academic standards, but add the
clarification that the federal government may not
mandate or provide incentives for states to adopt any
particular set of standards, including Common Core
State Standards
MAJOR AMENDMENTS
The bipartisan ESEA rewrite, was amended over three days last week in several key areas:
EARLY EDUCATION: An amendment offered by Sens.
Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.,
would allow states and local school districts to better
coordinate their federal, state, and local early-childhood
education programs.
TESTING: An amendment from Sen. Tammy Baldwin,
D-Wis., would allow states to audit the tests they use
and to eliminate any deemed ineffective, redundant, or
of low-quality.
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS: An amendment from Sen.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would reinstate 21st Century
Community Learning Centers in the bill.
RURAL SCHOOLS: An amendment from Sen. Michael
Bennet, D-Colo., would require the secretary of education
to engage in outreach to rural school districts regarding
opportunity to apply for competitive grants.
WRAP-AROUND SERVICES: An amendment from Sen.
Al Franken, D-Minn., would increase the number of
school counselors and social workers.
OPT OUT: An amendment from Sen. Johnny Iskason,
R-Ga., would clarify that nothing in the federal law can
pre-empt state or local law regarding parents wishing to
opt their student out from tests.
STEM: An amendment from Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.,
would improve access to high-quality stem courses, and
help train and recruit teachers for stem subjects.
SOURCES: U.S. Senate Health, Education Labor, and Pensions Committee; Education Week
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.,
center, chairman of the Senate
education committee, talks with
staff members as the committee
prepares to mark up a proposed
reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act.
including Sens. Michael Bennet of
Colorado and Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts, urged the addition of
more protections for the most disadvantaged
students, particularly when
identifying the poorest-performing
schools and ensuring that the billions
of federal education dollars sent
to states are being spent effectively
on those that need the most support.
Another major policy that would
likely headline a floor debate is how
to address bullying, particularly
in regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender, or lgbt, students.
Committee members offered and
withdrew three separate bullying
amendments, including one from
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., that
would have proposed adding the
Student Non-Discrimination Act to
the underlying bill.
But getting the bill to the floor may
be a challenge in and of itself.
The current legislative backlog includes
an anti-human-trafficking bill,
the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be
the U.S. attorney general, a congressional
response to the Iran nucleardeal
framework, and a looming vote
on a fiscal 2016 budget.
And while Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has mentioned
education as something the
chamber might address in this legislative
work period, which ends May 22,
the esea reauthorization has yet to be
specifically scheduled for floor time.
20 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 22, 2015 | www.edweek.org
T.J. Kirkpatrick for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - April 22, 2015

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