Education Week - August 22, 2012 - 27

EDUCATION WEEK

AUGUST 22, 2012

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could adapt for itself, she said. “We are looking at every single possibility if these schools do not turn around, ... and that’s what the research is for,” Ms. Morgan said. Essentially, the state believes its turnaround strategies combine the best of outside research and close support of school stakeholders. The achievement centers, rather than a representation of a rigid state takeover, are designed to work closely with districts and schools, she said, even as the state pledges to act “aggressively” toward schools that continue to perform poorly. (The waiver plan does call for regional centers to discuss strategies with school and district leaders as part of a “collaborative” effort, although it does not say district and school leaders must sign off on those strategies.) Nothing in the proposal to the Broad Foundation would shock anyone who read the nclb waiver application, Ms. Morgan said. While local school officials believe the state has been clear regarding the centers, said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, their main concern is that they be involved in the turnaround plans. “We do not want to be obstructionist,” he said. At the same time, the centers should not veer too far from state authority and become “clients” of the schools and districts they serve, said Sam Redding, the director of the Center on Innovation and Improvement, a federally funded organization based in Lincoln, Ill., that works with states in developing regional educational centers.

Both Parties To Spotlight Fiscal Debate
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

JUDGING CRITERIA
District will be scored on: • Academic track record and transparency (such as if it makes school-level expenditures readily available to the public) 45 points • “Vision” for reform 40 points • Continuous improvement (having a strategy and performance measures for long-term improvement) 30 points • Policy and infrastructure (such as giving building leaders more autonomy) 25 points • Budget and sustainability 20 points • BONUS: Collaboration with public and private partners to help improve students’ social, emotional, and behavioral needs 10 additional points

result in fewer students’ meeting the eligibility requirements of those grants for low-income college students. It would CAMPAIGN also eliminate interest-free benefits on subsidized Stafford Loans, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. The Obama campaign ad doesn’t go into all those specifics. But it accuses Mr. Romney of seeking to “cut college aid for nearly 10 million students.” And it points to the administration’s record on higher education, including the successful push to eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which relied on subsidized private lenders to make loans to students. Mr. Shober, the Lawrence University professor, expects to hear more attacks along those lines from the Obama campaign. “Ryan is perhaps a vulnerability on that score,” Mr. Shober said. The congressman’s budget, he said, “will not garner the good will of 20-year-olds who are deeply in debt.” But Jason Delisle, the director of the New America Foundation’s education budget project, gave Mr. Ryan high marks for acknowledging long-term sustainability problems with the Pell Grant program, even if his solutions aren’t as clear as they could be. The Pell Grant program has grown quickly in recent years, in part because Congress increased the size of the maximum grant when Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, and in part because there has been much higher demand for the grants during the economic slowdown.

to raise the federal debt ceiling, could mean a 7.8 percent reduction to a host of military and domestic programs, including education. President Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 seeks to avert some of the cuts through a mix of other spending reductions and tax increases. Mr. Romney has said that if he’s elected, he’d like Congress to come up with a short-term deal on the cuts so that he could help lawmak-

teacher-evaluation systems, charter schools, higher academic standards, and dramatic interventions for the lowest-performing schools. But there’s been little discussion of his education record on the campaign trail. “I think with the economy the way it is, that will continue to be the primary issue,” said Craig Jerald, an independent consultant who served as the policy director of Ed in ’08, a Washington-

their federal aid to the school or program of their choice, including a private or religious school. But he’s been virtually silent on K-12 policy since then.

Policy Record
Rep. Ryan doesn’t have a long record on education policy, but his recent stances are aligned with those of most other House Republicans. As a junior member of Congress in 2001, he voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. But since then, he’s changed his mind about the federal accountability system at the heart of the law. He has become a co-sponsor of the A-Plus Act, which would allow states to opt out of many of the mandates of the nclb law, as long as they agreed to show studentachievement gains. David Parr, the president of the Janesville Education Association, a 735-member union in Rep. Ryan’s Wisconsin hometown and congressional district, described the congressman as “very polite and approachable.” Rep. Ryan has helped students from Janesville, including Mr. Parr’s own children, with public policy research projects, he said. But Mr. Parr, a teacher at Janesville Virtual Academy, an online public school, is not a fan of Rep. Ryan’s budget proposal. “He’s not anti-education,” Mr. Parr said. “He’s just anti-payingfor-it.”

2012

Having [Rep. Paul] Ryan on the ticket really forces a discussion: Do we think the federal government has a role in propping up education spending in the face of cutbacks ...?”
ARNOLD SHOBER
Assistant Professor of Government Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.

“

ers craft a long-term plan for the nation’s fiscal future after taking office in January. By making Rep. Ryan his vice-presidential choice, Mr. Romney appears to be sending a major signal about where he’d like those budget talks to go. President Obama’s first term has seen some major developments on K-12 policy—including the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program, which encouraged states to embrace controversial new

based nonpartisan campaign to make education a top issue in the 2008 presidential race. “I would be shocked if it got much play at either of the conventions. …. The candidates need to check the box, but they’re not really going to give it much weight.” Mr. Romney unveiled his own education proposal earlier this summer, including a plan to allow parents of special education and disadvantaged students to take

The Economy Dominates
Mr. Delisle said the vague nature of a budget blueprint will make it harder for Democrats to go after Rep. Ryan on specific spending cuts. “All they can say is ‘You’re going to put downward pressure on the future funding for these programs,’ ” said Mr. Delisle, who worked as an aide to then-Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., when he served as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “It doesn’t make for a great sound bite.” No matter who wins in November, fiscal issues are likely to take center stage later this year. Shortly after the elections, Congress is expected to return to Washington to tackle significant long-term deficit issues in a lameduck session, including whether to avert across-the-board trigger cuts known as “sequestration.” (See Education Week, Aug. 8, 2012.) The cuts, which were put in place last summer as part of a deal

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
DIGITAL DIRECTIONS
From the publishers of Education Week, Digital Directions is designed to help you create the right technology solutions for your school! More than ever, administrators and educational technology leaders need reliable information and resources to guide the technology decisionmaking process. Digital Directions provides you with the advice, tips and tools you want, in a format you can use. Visit us online at www.digitaldirections.org to register for your FREE subscription!

EDUCATION WEEK

GRANT DEADLINES
• Applications are due Oct. 30; districts interested in applying are asked to let the department know by Aug. 30. • Grants, ranging from $5 million to $40 million, will be awarded in December.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education

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Education Week - August 22, 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - August 22, 2012