Senate ESEA Bill Walks Away From Students in Failing Schools
Statement from Democrats for Education Reform on Senate ESEA reauthorization, “Every Child Achieves Act” (ECAA)
Today, in advance of the US Senate debate on ESEA reauthorization, Democrats for Education Reform Policy Director Charles Barone released the following statement:
“The bipartisan Senate ESEA reauthorization bill, due up on the Senate floor on July 7th, abandons the federal commitment to ensuring every child the opportunity of an effective education that prepares them for college, the workplace and citizenship. While we commend Senator Murray and Senate Democrats for improvements made to the bill since its introduction, without serious changes on the Senate floor, we do not support passage of this legislation.
“We don’t disagree with the general principle of greater state and local flexibility, but this bill wildly overshoots the mark. The issue is not how far this bill moves away from the No Child Left Behind Act. It’s how about far removed this bill is from common sense and the law’s underlying principles.
“We are not objecting because ECAA lets states set their own achievement goals. We are not objecting because ECAA allows states to use indices in addition to tests to judge the success of their schools. We’re not objecting because ECAA lets states and districts choose how to intervene in low-performing schools.
“What we do object to is the bill’s abandonment of historically disadvantaged groups of students. These students have been the law’s touchstone since it was first passed 50 years ago. And yet this bill lets states declare a school to be succeeding even when at-risk students – students of color, students from low-income families, English Language Learners, students with disabilities – fail year after year to reach state benchmarks. It turns a blind eye to drop-out factories and to students who are deemed worthy to enter college only to find out they need remedial instruction in math and reading.
“This bill does have some commendable provisions, including that it:
- Maintains the current law requirement of annual, statewide testing in reading and math in grades 3-8;
- Ensures that only those students with the most severe cognitive disabilities are exempted from state college- and career-ready standards and assessments;
- Requires transparency to expose per-pupil spending inequities between schools;
- Reauthorizes the federal charter schools program, funds the replication and expansion of the most successful charter school models, and improves authorizer quality and oversight.
- Invests in innovation by providing grants to develop, implement, replicate, or scale up evidence-based approaches to improving student achievement.
- Dedicates funding to new differential pay and human capital management systems for teachers and principals.
“We look forward to debate on this bill. We urge all Senators to examine its provisions closely and to support efforts to ensure that when it comes to our nation’s public school system, all students really do matter.”
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