Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, today used a congressional hearing with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to reiterate key GOP priorities for education reform, including: restoring local control, empowering parents, letting teachers teach, and protecting taxpayers. The hearing examined the Education Department’s recently released blueprint for reauthorization of the law known as No Child Left Behind.
“As Congress prepares to write the next version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, I hope we do more than simply cast aside the NCLB name and expand its requirements. I believe we need to have a meaningful conversation about the appropriate federal role in our schools,” said Kline. (Read the full text of Rep. Kline’s opening remarks here.)
The Administration’s blueprint includes significant changes to accountability and teacher quality requirements and offers a markedly different approach to innovation, flexibility, and parental choice in education.
“Secretary Duncan has spoken about the need to give local schools more flexibility, and in a few key areas, his blueprint would indeed loosen restrictions at the local level and make the law more responsive,” said Kline. “Giving schools credit for student progress rather than static achievement benchmarks will help move away from the pass-fail approach that has left schools and communities feeling discouraged. The added funding flexibility for the highest performing schools is a good first step, and could be expanded to give struggling schools the same opportunity to direct funding where they need it most.”
Kline noted that while the blueprint includes some long-sought changes to federal education policy, the moves to limit parental options and expand federal involvement in academic standards are troubling.
“Tutoring and transfer options are the only immediate remedies for parents of children trapped in underperforming schools. Backing away from these critical parental options by making their availability elective rather than mandatory is a tremendous disappointment, and one that could leave more than half a million students without the educational lifelines they depend on,” said Kline. “Equally troubling is the use of tactics that have been called ‘coercive’ to press schools to adopt a particular set of academic targets. The slippery slope toward de facto national standards and assessments is very real.”
Two key Republican priorities – expanding access to high-quality charter schools and using meaningful performance pay systems to improve teacher quality – are addressed in the blueprint, but some questions remain about their implementation.
“Increasing the number of effective charter schools and implementing genuine teacher accountability tools are laudable goals, and pressure from special interests should not water down bipartisan commitment in these areas,” said Kline. “Diluting charter school funding or giving the special interests veto power over real performance pay initiatives would be a step in the wrong direction, which is why policy details are as important as public pronouncements.”
The Republican principles for education reform can be found online here.
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