That ESEA reauthorization: Don't celebrate yet

The bipartisan rewrite of the ESEA that the Senate education committee unanimously approved will join a crush of legislative priorities awaiting debate on the chamber's floor and could draw intense partisan sparring, writes Lauren Camera for Education Week. The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 maintains major policies from NCLB, among these annual testing and requiring disaggregated data for subgroups of students. It also significantly diverges from its predecessor, scrapping adequate yearly progress and allowing for state-created accountability systems. Yet even if the bill moves to debate, it could look radically different after senators add amendments that reshape the measure to their liking. Chief among these will be a proposal from Republicans that Title I dollars follow students to public or private schools of their choice, and a proposal from Democrats that strengthens accountability by requiring states to identify their poorest-performing schools. Another major policy issue will be how to address bullying, particularly in regard to LGBT students. But even getting the bill to the floor may prove challenging. The current legislative backlog includes an anti-human-trafficking bill, the nomination of Loretta Lynch for U.S. attorney general, a congressional response to the Iran nuclear-deal framework, and a vote on the fiscal 2016 budget. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.