On several occasions I ‘ve expressed optimism that we would have the opportunity to rethink the federal role in public education through the process of reauthorization of NCLB. The election of Barak Obama added further fuel to my hopefulness. Then came the recession and I’m beginning to think all bets are off.
It is a strange time indeed. A time of dramatic contrasts. Huge and unprecedented amounts of money are promised for public education from Washington and we are grateful for it. At the same time bad things continue to happen and confusion reigns supreme. In spite of the money it appears that there will still be massive numbers of teacher layoffs. state and local officials continue to get seemingly contradictory guidance and advice as to how they can and cannot spend the stimulus money.
As we watch and listen as Secretary Duncan assembles his new team at the Department of Ed there is a sometimes alarming sense of “ad hocism” that leads some to believe that we may not have the new beginning that we had hoped for.
Last week the Associated Press reported that Sec. Duncan offered the following suggestions for how sttes might consider spending their money:
- Sophisticated evaluation systems for teachers and principals.
- Extra pay to reward excellence in teaching or to lure teachers and administrators into struggling schools.
- New charter schools.
- Closing failing schools and reopening them with new staff.
- More technology for classrooms along with training for teachers.
- Modernized science labs and other facilities.
When most local school boards are struggling with how they are going to survive the year without shredding important programs, laying off teachers, reneging on contractual agreements charging parents more for all kinds of things these kinds of utterances must seem at this point in time close to absurd.
The secretary does not seem to speak directly about NCLB very often so we have to continue to interpolate and speculate where they will take us in the future. The first opportunity came with the promise to review the regulations promulgated by the Bush administration on the eve of the election ignoring much opposition to many of the changes. When the results of the review were released a few weeks ago the new Secretary offered little or no change adding fuel to the burgeoning confusion. Last week, Michelle McNeill of EdWeek reported in her blog that the Ed Dept. did have a strategy regarding NCLB.
“The answer”, she said, “spelled out at a meeting I attended yesterday in Washington, is simple: Pure political strategy.
Steven Robinson, a special adviser to Duncan on science, technology, engineering, and math issues and a former adviser to then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, essentially told superintendents gathered yesterday at the American Association of School Administrators’ legislative conference that if the department started to make NCLB more workable, then there would be less motivation in Congress to reauthorize it. (emphasis added)
What exactly does that mean? Congress will reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act just as they have periodically for the 45 years of its existence. My question is when will we begin to see a guiding vision from the administration for the inevitable reauthorization. When will we have the much needed dialog concerning an appropriate role for the federal government in education? When will we confront the distortions that have been the by-product of the standards and accountability movement and brought to new heights under the Bush administration?
Ronald A. Wolk, founder and former editor of Education Week in a recent commentary, “Why We are Still ‘At Risk’ The Legacy of Five Faulty Assumptions” aptly frames the challenge:
Our new president has looked into the abyss of our current economic, energy, environmental, and health-care policies and promises to challenge the fundamental assumptions on which they are based. He admonishes us to join him in thinking and acting boldly.
We can only hope he feels the same way about education policy.
The biggest problem confronting education at this moment is fiscal. The patient needs to be stabilized and when the vital signs are back at safe levels let’s take the time and resources necessary to come up with a new strategy of treatment and support. We can profit from the experience of the last eight years, the question is will we.
