Education Week - October 8, 2014 - 28

COMMeNTaRY
How People
And Events
Shape K-12 Policy
By Christopher T. Cross
T
he causes of events are ever more interesting than
the events themselves.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.),
Roman writer, politician, and orator
As a society, we seem so caught up in the moment,
so linked electronically to real-time events around the
world, that we have little capacity for knowing and appreciating
history.
But we ignore the past at our peril. This is particularly true for political
issues, including education. It is important to learn, as Cicero so
wisely wrote, about the people and events that have led us to the present.
Looking
to history, you can find a context for virtually any K-12 policy
discussion going forward. Consider Ronald Reagan's support of academic
standards in the 1980s and George H.W. Bush's convening of the nation's
governors around education in 1989: What insights can these moments
offer on reaching agreement around higher standards? It's interesting
to note that many Reagan acolytes today vigorously condemn nationally
determined higher standards.
Here are some other intriguing bits of information:
* In 1949, a verbal food fight erupted between former first lady Eleanor
Roosevelt and Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Roman Catholic
archbishop of New York, over whether to allow federal funding to go to
nonpublic schools. It wasn't until 1965 and the passage of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act that the "child-benefit theory" was put
forth, allowing federal dollars to support certain activities for poor children
as long as the funding wasn't in the control of a church or church
school and was used only for educational purposes.
* In 1956, the National Education Association, along with several
other labor organizations, opposed a legislative amendment in the U.S.
House that would have required that federal construction aid go only to
desegregated school districts.
* In 1965, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., became
the first political leader to ask how to determine if
Title I helped low-income students. The question
remained unaddressed until passage of the
1988 amendments to the esea.
* In 1971, the then-U.S. Office of Education
"
There is a
was able to act on grant applications for the
Emergency Aid program within 48 hours.
The quick federal response undercut arguments
from segregated school districts that
they couldn't find the money to dismantle
their existing programs, and it played a significant
role in dismantling dual school systems
in the South.
* The federal government promised in 1975 that
strong movement,
driven by forces on the
left and the right, to
turn back the
clock."
it would provide up to 40 percent of the cost of special
education for children with disabilities. The promise, made
with no basis in research and to this day unfulfilled, today lives on as
something of a policy legend.
* The murder of U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., in one of the incidents
surrounding the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in Guyana, proved a significant
and tragic turning point in the creation of the U.S. Department of
Education. Ryan had led Democrats opposing the agency; after his death,
that opposition collapsed, and legislation establishing the department
passed by a narrow margin.
The congressional debates of the late 1970s over the department's
start, now largely forgotten, foreshadowed conflicts over the agency's
agenda today. What can the history of those debates, which included a
vote to bar the adoption of any federal curriculum, tell us about a current
war of words over the federal role in the adoption of the Common Core
State Standards?
With the retirement this year of both Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the
chairman of the Senate education committee; and Rep. George Miller of
California, the top Democrat on the House education panel, our institutional
memory of federal K-12 policy will be greatly diminished when the
115th Congress convenes in January.
While there is a logical argument to make that this void will free
people from defending the past, it also may mean that, without an understanding
of history, we will be condemned to repeat its failures. In
my book Political Education: Charting the Course for State and Federal
28 | EDUCATION WEEK | October 8, 2014 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary
Policy, I consider how issues such as national defense, civil
rights, the War on Poverty, and states' rights, as well as
personalities such as the Kennedy brothers, Bill Clinton,
and Ronald Reagan have shaped federal policy. Each person,
each issue, has made important contributions that
affect us today.
There is a strong movement, driven by forces on the left
and the right, to turn back the clock to earlier times, when
the federal presence was minimal. But doing that without addressing
what we have learned about state capacity, the value of
external monitoring, or the role played by functions like data collection
and research at the federal level could create confusion and turmoil.
Similarly, it would be foolish not to recognize that, with 50 states and
over 13,000 school districts, federally devised solutions are often just not
practical nor implementable and would further alienate the teachers and
leaders who have the daily responsibility to educate our children. States
are in the middle, responsible to voters, parents, students, and the federal
government.
A variety of indicators, ranging from the analysis of state data and college-entrance
and -completion rates to international comparisons vividly
portray the state of education in the nation, and the picture that emerges
is not bright. While we invest hundreds of billions of dollars in education,
it is less than clear that our young people are getting the excellence they
deserve.
Not having had a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act since President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left
Behind Act in 2002, we know there is much work to be done. As we prepare
to tackle new policies and legislation, time spent learning history is
time well spent. n
CHRISTOPHER T. CROSS is the chairman of Cross & Joftus, an education consulting
firm. He was an assistant U.S. secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush
and the president of the Maryland board of education. He also served as the Republican
staff director of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee and as the president
and CEO of the Council for Basic Education, in Washington.
| INSIDE |
22 PAYING ATTENTION
TO ATTENDANCE
EARLY AND OFTEN
22 WHAT A VACCINATION STUDY
TAUGHT US ABOUT TRANSFORMING
SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS
24 LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
Jared Boggess
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Education Week - October 8, 2014

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