The folks over at the National Journal's education experts blog are starting to debate whether the No Child Left Behind act (a.k.a. the Elementary and Secondary Education act) can be reauthorized in 2010. My friend and former colleague John Bailey gets it right when he writes,
There is growing bipartisan consensus around important reforms such as increasing the number of high quality charter schools, changing approaches to human capital (including pay for performance), and focusing aggressive interventions with the lowest performing schools. But far trickier and more difficult is getting consensus around a new accountability framework to replace [Adequate Yearly Progress].
Some reformers like to use macho talk about renewing the law only if it doesn't "roll back" reform. But what if Congress pushes ahead??with a law that promotes charter schools,??merit pay, etc. (like the education stimulus did) but that also??provides greater state discretion??around the guts of the accountability framework? Would that be a "rollback"?
In my book, it would be a win-win. As I argued back in December, let the states take the wheel again when it comes to defining "failing" schools and figuring out what to do about them. Keep the federal role focused on funding innovation, supporting solid research and evaluation, and promoting true transparency so everyone knows how every school in the country is performing.
Reformers should take this deal, but many won't; they??have grown accustomed to calling the shots on accountability from Washington, and pushing the view that states can't be trusted.????I suspect??these reformers??will be marginalized. Secretary Arne "tight-loose" Duncan will stitch together a coalition of education interest groups (and their supporters in the Democratic caucus) and??conservatives (and their supporters in the Republican caucus) who will be happy to see Uncle Sam step back from overseeing state accountability systems--and who feel more comfortable with providing incentives for state-level reform rather than issuing mandates.
To my friends in the reform community: In the current political environment, if you make Congress choose between "reform" and federalism, you're going to lose. Show more flexibility around "accountability," and you can still win.
--Mike Petrilli
