Education Week - November 12, 2014 - 15

goVeRnMent & politics
GOP Leaders in Congress
Outline Education Priorities
By Lauren Camera
After easily capturing the number of seats
they needed to take control of the U.S. Senate-and
padding their majority in the House
of Representatives-congressional Republicans
have laid out an aggressive education
policy agenda that includes overhauling the
long-stalled No Child Left Behind law and the
mammoth Higher Education Act.
While divided government will remain, as the
White House is in Democratic hands
at least until President Barack
Obama finishes his second term,
the new political calculation in
Congress will likely spur movement
on education bills. Lawmakers
who play major roles on the
chamber's education committees were quick to
outline their priorities, which also include school
choice measures, funding issues, and generally
scaling back the federal footprint on K-12.
Thanks to wins in Arkansas, Colorado,
Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, and South
Dakota-all tight and expensive races that in
the end went to Republican candidates-the
gop garnered enough seats to take leadership
of the Senate. Democrats currently hold the
Senate with 53 seats to Republicans' 45 (plus
two independents who are aligned with the
Democrats), but in the next Congress, Republicans
will control at least 52 seats.
In the House, Republicans extended their
majority from 234 to at least 243. (At the time
this article went to press, some races in both
chambers had not been decided.)
The flip in the Senate will result in a reconfiguring
of key leadership positions.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former U.S. secretary
of education under President George
H.W. Bush, is slated to take the reins of the
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
The Tennessee Republican and former
governor is known as a pragmatic politician,
fond of working across the aisle. He'll likely
be collaborating with Sen. Patty Murray, DWash.,
who is expected to leave her post on
the Budget Committee for the top Democratic
slot on the help Committee as the current
chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, retires
at the end of the year.
At the helm of the House Education and
the Workforce Committee will be a familiar
face, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who easily recaptured
his seat, even after being targeted
by liberal hbo personality Bill Maher's "flip
a district" effort. With the departure of Rep.
George Miller, D-Calif., the top Democrat on
the committee who is retiring at the end of
the year, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., is expected
to fill the slot of the ranking member.
NCLB Action
Rep. Kline has ushered two different versions
of an overhaul of the nclb law-the current
edition of the nearly 50-year-old Elementary
and Secondary Education Act-through
the House as committee chairman during the
last two Congresses.
"I've been trying and trying to get No Child
Left Behind replaced, ... and now I'm much
more optimistic," he said in an interview. "I'm
looking at every way to get it done. It's the
most important [education priority] because
states are struggling with the temporarywaiver
system set up by the administration.
We need to change the law."
Rep. Kline's efforts to rewrite the law include
PAGE 16 >
U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., above, heads the House education committee. U.S. Sen. Lamar
Alexander, R-Tenn., is expected to take the reins of the Senate education committee under the new
GOP majority in that chamber. Both are expected to push hard on No Child Left Behind Act renewal.
More Than $60 Million Later, Scant Payoff for Teachers' Unions
By Lauren Camera
The two national teachers' unions
spent big on the 2014 midterm elections
in a bid to unseat Republican
governors and help Democrats hang
on to their majority in the U.S. Senate.
But by midnight on Election
Day, it was clear that their recordsetting
spending on such efforts
as campaign ads, marketing, and
boots-on-the-ground operations had
largely failed.
"It was hard to see so many good
people lose their seats and so many
friends of public education not get the
opportunity to serve," said National
Education Association President Lily
Eskelsen Garcia. "My heart is heavy."
The nea spent more than $40 million,
while the American Federation
of Teachers spent more than $20 million.
For the first time ever, a majority
of their war chests went to state
and local races vs. federal races.
Karen White, the political director
for the 3 million-member nea, blamed
the outcome on a negative national
mood, a result, she said, of Republican-backed
state policies that curbed
people's rights to vote and blocked
minimum-wage increases.
But President Randi Weingarten of
the 1.5 million-member aft blamed
the outcome squarely on the public's
attitude toward President Barack
Obama.
"Participating in the political process
is never the wrong decision,"
Ms. Weingarten said. "That doesn't
change because this was an election
that turned into a national referendum
on the president."
Governor's Races
The defeats in races backed by the
unions were most notable at the gubernatorial
level, where the aft and
the nea spent millions of dollars attempting
to oust Republicans elected
in the 2010 midterm elections during
the previous gop wave. During
their tenure, members of that class
of governors have cut education aid
and rolled back bargaining rights of
teachers' unions.
The nea Advocacy Fund, the union's
super-pac, gave $2.9 million through
the end of September to the Democratic
Governors Association, hoping
to affect contests in Florida, Michigan,
and Pennsylvania, to name a few. In
addition to that spending, the nea
super-pac also pushed $200,000 to
Michigan for All in an effort to unseat
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who ultimately
overcame a challenge from
Democrat Mark Schauer.
The nea's political-spending arm
also unleashed a significant ground
operation in Wisconsin, where Republican
Gov. Scott Walker eventually
beat back Democratic challenger
Mary Burke.
In that race, the union's state affiliate
handed out more than 40,000
candidate-biography fliers, mailed
side-by-side candidate comparisons
to 45,000 Wisconsin households, and
organized a 15,000-member phone
bank. It also sent early absenteeballot
request forms, including a
postage-paid envelope, to 15,000
members considered "drop-off" voters,
those who tend not to vote in
nonpresidential elections.
And in Florida, the aft gave
$500,000 to the Charlie Crist for Florida
organization, backing the former
governor, a Republican-turned-Democrat
who lost his battle to unseat the
gop incumbent, Gov. Rick Scott.
The one gubernatorial victory for
the unions occurred in Pennsylvania,
where embattled Republican
Gov. Tom Corbett lost handily to
Democratic challenger Tom Wolf. In
that race, the nea Advocacy Fund directed
$580,000 to PA Families First,
whose mission was to oust Gov. Corbett,
while the aft's political action
committee gave $450,000 to the Tom
Wolf for Governor organization.
"Where the results were based on
local issues, as in Pennsylvania, the
outcome was different," Ms. Weingarten
said.
Federal Races
The political-spending arms of
teachers' unions also poured millions
of dollars into federal races in
a failed attempt to help Democrats
keep their majority in the Senate.
The aft, for its part, directed more
than $1 million to the Senate Majority
pac, whose main goal was to
protect the Democrats' stronghold.
But through the course of the evening,
Democrats in states including
Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa,
North Carolina, and South Dakota
fell to Republicans.
In North Carolina, Democratic incumbent
Sen. Kay Hagan was overtaken
by the Republican challenger,
state House Speaker Thom Tillis, in
the country's most expensive race.
The nea's super-pac directed
$250,000 to North Carolina Citizens
for Protecting Our Schools in an effort
to help Sen. Hagan, and $3.6 million
to Waterfront Strategies, a media-buying
firm that used the money, in part,
for TV ads opposing Mr. Tillis.
And in Colorado, Democratic Sen.
Mark Udall fell to Republican challenger
Rep. Cory Gardner, a race that
the nea poured significant funds into
during the last few months of the election
cycle. Its super-pac put $200,000
into a Spanish-language TV ad buy
that ran for two weeks in the Denver
and Colorado Springs markets. The
spot was designed to target Hispanic
and other Spanish-speaking voters
and was part of a larger effort led by a
coalition of political action committees
that included the seiu, the Senate Majority
pac, and People for the American
Way. They collectively spent more
than $1 million backing Sen. Udall
through the Nov. 4 election.
EDUCATION WEEK | November 12, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 15
Wade Payne/AP
Jerry Holt/Star Tribune/AP
2014
ELECTION

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Education Week - November 12, 2014

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