House Leaders Plan To Move Ahead with ESEA Overhaul
Leaders of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee have announced that they are moving forward with a bipartisan plan to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Feb. 18 announcement was made by Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), the committee's chairman; John Kline (R-Minn.), the panel's senior Republican; Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), chair of the subcommittee on elementary and secondary education; and Michael Castle (R-Del.), the senior Republican on that subcommittee.
The committee's first hearing, to focus on charter schools, was set for Feb. 24. "Today, we're announcing a bipartisan, open and transparent effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind—a law that we all agree is in need of major reform," the representatives said in a joint statement. "It will start with a series of hearings in the coming weeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead as we work to ensure an excellent education is available to every student in America. With a real commitment to innovation, we invite all stakeholders who share our serious interest in building a world-class education system to e-mail us their suggestions." The AFT will be submitting its own detailed recommendations to the Education and Labor Committee.
The AFT has identified broad priority issues that need to be addressed during ESEA reauthorization. Among them: an improved process for labor-management cooperation; an accountability system that is not punitive, and takes into account student growth and school progress; tests that are aligned to high-quality curriculum; resources, support and proven practices for low-performing schools; support for community schools and other approaches that provide wraparound services students need, such as health and nutrition; and greater investment in early education.
In a recent U.S. News and World Report article, AFT president Randi Weingarten wrote that "education must be different, more rigorous and richer in content, if we are to give our students what they need to succeed in a 21st-century, knowledge-based economy. NCLB—in its focus and its funding—has never provided schools and teachers with the tools or resources required to prepare students for that new reality. Instead, it has effectively written into law an unbalanced focus on testing rather than teaching. Tests have become more about telling us how much students can remember and less about telling us what they have—or have not—learned."
The Obama administration has already indicated some its priorities for ESEA, and for federal education programs more broadly, in its fiscal year 2011 budget proposal. (See earlier story.)
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be holding town hall meetings on ESEA reauthorization around the country in coming months; we will pass on more details as they are scheduled. These meetings will give AFT leaders and members the opportunity to express their opinions on how the law can be improved. As this process moves forward, the AFT will be sending out materials for leaders to use with members so they can be effective advocates in helping bring meaningful changes to the law that reflect what educators know works in the classroom and what tools are needed to get the job done. [Dan Gursky, Jane Meroney, Tor Cowan]
February 19, 2010 AFT Leadernet |
