WHAT TO WATCH
In a new article from Education Week, readers get the low-down on what to expect from the 114th Congress on the education front. First, we’ll see a race to get a reauthorized ESEA bill to the president by mid-February. Next, we can expect to see some debate on two major ed-reform issues: grade-span testing and charters schools. Finally, get ready for what may be the reemergence of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and an education-research bill.
ESEA AS PIE
The first item on that list is the one that interests us most right now. For the best in-depth take on the GOP’s plans to tinker with No Child Left Behind (the most recent ESEA reauthorization, passed in 2001 and renewed in 2007), read Maggie Severns’s fantastic piece at Politico. Alongside a useful history of the law and a fresh look at the testing debate, the article cites Fordham’s own marvelous Mike Petrilli on the prospects for legislative action. The process, he says, will be “all about Congress taking a red pen and deleting” language in NCLB.
MORE FROM MIKE
Over the New Year, we Fordhamites caught ESEA fever. And the only cure is more Petrilli. For relief from your symptoms, make sure to check out Mike’s piping-hot take on which elements of the law are likely to stay and which will be left behind like so many unwanted holiday sweaters. It’s got a colorful table and everything.
LESS IS MORE
And finally, we gavel the 114th Congress into action with this counsel of modesty from that paragon of responsibility and restraint, Chester Finn:
“Less is more should be their mantra going forward. Winnow. Simplify. Devolve. Deregulate. There are plenty of other domains (e.g. national defense, economic policy) where decisions made in Washington are profoundly important to the nation's future. In primary-secondary education, however, all that is really essential for the federal government to do is gather and disseminate reliable information, rectify bona fide abuses of individual rights, and assist states with the cost of educating particularly needy children. Period."
