Legislation and Guidance
- ESEA: Two Track Activity
- House Moves Forward on FY09 Spending
- STEM Education Remains a Critical Legislative Priority
News
Legislation and Guidance
ESEA: Two Track Activity
Congress is amidst a pause in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that is allowing two related tracks of activity in Washington. First, members of Congress are reflecting on the fundamental role of the federal government in education. Second, the Bush Administration is using the delay to propose rules designed to fortify its top ESEA priorities.
There are three important parts to the Administration’s effort. First, in March, Spellings announced the differentiated intervention pilot program under ESEA. Under the pilot, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will approve up to 10 states to operate their own differentiated accountability systems. As of early June, 17 states have submitted applications and the Secretary plans to approve states to participate in the pilot before the start of the 2008-09 school year so that states may implement the model based on results from tests administered in 2007-08. Second, on April 23rd, ED published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to amend the regulations governing Title I of ESEA. If finalized, the proposed regulations would have considerable impact on 14 sections of the law in the following areas: assessments, accountability, public school choice and supplemental educational services. The comment period closes on June 23rd. The submitted comments are available for public viewing at the Regulations.gov Web site (Outside Source) (search for docket ID: ED-2008-OESE-0003). Third, on May 2nd ED released a notice of proposed interpretation for Title III of ESEA, regarding the annual administration of the English language proficiency assessments. Although referred to as a notice of "interpretation" and not a "notice of proposed rulemaking," the resulting interpretations will almost certainly have full force and effect of regulations. As a result, States, districts and interested parties submitted considerable comments to the interpretations that were due on June 2nd.
The regulatory activity is moving along quickly, but the period of reflection on Capitol Hill may take some time. The reauthorization entails many complicated matters that will require bipartisan collaboration, and that is not currently in abundance. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have compelling political incentive to complete reauthorization soon. When Congress agreed to No Child Left Behind in 2001, it was a unique moment of bipartisan unity soon after 9/11. Seven years later, the 9/11 unity is long gone and neither Senator McCain nor Senator Obama have made education a top priority. As Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said this week in the New York Times, "I'm pretty sure that the new president, whoever it is, will not show up and work on George Bush’s domestic achievement on Day 1."
This is no doubt true, but there are plenty in Washington who are always working on the topic’s important details, which was evident this week when the Center for American Progress held a conference to examine the comparability provisions of the ESEA. The event brought together some of the leading experts, policymakers, and practitioners in the field to explore this critical provision of law and consider how to improve the comparability provision at the federal level in order to assure fiscal equality at the local level. The contributors looked at virtually all aspects of the federal and local comparability issue. While there were many divergent opinions and recommendations for courses of action, most of the arguments identified similar problems and courses of action that Congress should consider when reauthorizing the law. You can find four important papers that shape the conference at the Center for American Progress Web site (Outside Source).
Resources
"Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education: How Local School District Funding Practices Hurt Disadvantaged Students and What Federal Policy Can Do About It," Center for American Progress, Events, June 10, 2008.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Bush Loyalist Fights Foes of ‘No Child’ Law," New York Times, June 12, 2008.
House Moves Forward on FY09 Spending
The ball is officially rolling on fiscal year 2009 (FY09) appropriations this week, as the House Appropriations Committee, and its subcommittees, began work on their annual spending bills. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) released the proposed 302(b) allocations while some individual subcommittees held their own markups. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning on bringing the emergency supplemental appropriations bill to a final vote sometime next week. Appropriators only have two more weeks before the July 4th recess.
Chairman Obey released a table of the proposed 302(b) allocations for FY09 spending. These allocations set the discretionary spending limits on all subcommittee bills. For the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, which Obey also chairs, the chairman is proposing a discretionary cap of slightly more than $153 billion. This is nearly $8 billion more than what was enacted in FY 2008, and roughly $7.8 billion above the President’s request for FY09. The full committee will vote on the final allocations next week before moving on to those bills already approved in their respective subcommittees. The Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee is planning its markup for next Thursday, with a full committee markup the following week.
While Chairman Obey carries on with the individual spending bills, Speaker of the House Pelosi is still trying to bring the emergency supplemental bill to the floor for a final vote. The Senate approved a $193 billion supplemental bill last month that funds the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for the rest of this year and into FY09. It also contains about $10 billion in domestic spending, including $1.2 billion for science initiatives, mostly for NASA, and about $400 million for a one-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. House Democrats are also still trying to determine how much domestic spending will be added to the bill. Party leaders are at odds with the fiscally conservative members of their own caucus over offsets for the domestic priorities under consideration. Without these moderate Blue Dog Democrats, the majority party will not have the votes necessary to pass a final bill.
Resources
Josh Rogin, "Democrats Vow to Pass War Bill by Month’s End," CQ Today, June 12, 2008.
Ashley Roque, "House Democrats Hope to Consider War Supplemental Next Week," Congress Now, June 12, 2008.
STEM Education Remains a Critical Legislative Priority
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education remains a priority in Congress, even if it continues to be underfunded. As appropriations subcommittees began working on fiscal year 2009 (FY09) appropriations, the House discussed certain educational concerns as it worked to authorize programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In both debates, most lawmakers boasted about strides Congress is making in science and math education, while bemoaning the lack of adequate funding STEM education receives. These are the same comments that STEM advocates have been making over the last year.
Thursday, unanimously, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies approved spending increases for agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, increasing their share over last year’s amount and shifting some of their focus from research to education-related programs. The $56.8 billion bill is about $5 billion over last year’s enacted funding level and more than $3.1 billion above President Bush’s budget request for FY09. The subcommittee’s bill, which will face a markup in the full committee next Thursday, will appropriate about $26 billion for STEM education and innovation spending, an increase of $1.7 billion over fiscal year 2008.
While the subcommittee marked up the bill yesterday, the rest of the House began debate on House Resolution 6063, which would reauthorize NASA programs. While the bill focuses more on the equipment and procedures NASA practices, there was also talk of ensuring that there is a competent workforce for NASA to continue to recruit talented students. The debate was postponed until next week, giving STEM advocates additional time to push for stronger incentives for those students considering entering the science and technology career fields. This includes further talk of fully funding the America COMPETES Act, which President Bush signed into law last year. The law focuses on training the next generation of engineers and those in related fields, a cornerstone of President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative. The push for increasing the effectiveness of STEM education had widespread bipartisan support, but is still underfunded.
Resources
Kathryn A. Wolfe, "House Puts Off Vote on NASA Reauthorization; Several Amendments Adopted," CQ Today, June 12, 2008.
Andy Guess, "Boost Proposed for Science Education," Inside Higher Ed, June 13, 2008.
News
McCain Advisor Discusses Education Policy
This morning, Lisa Keegan, an education advisor to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), met with education advocates to discuss priorities for the Presidential candidate. The Committee on Education Funding (CEF) invited Keegan to give members a better idea of what direction Senator McCain would take education policy if he wins the election in November. CEF is an advocacy organization that, along with its 100 member organizations, has worked toward the common goal of achieving adequate federal support for the nation's education system.
As expected, the conversation focused on reforming the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), though there was also discussion of career and technical education (CTE) as well as certain higher education concerns. With regards to ESEA, Keegan assured CEF members that the push for accountability and highly qualified teachers, prevalent under the ESEA’s current incarnation as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), would continue under a McCain presidency. Keegan claimed that there would be a shift away from merely penalizing failing schools, instead creating a focus on how to help individual students who are struggling. While school-, district-, and state-wide assessments would continue, Keegan claimed that efforts need to be more focused on how to help individual students who are in the most need.
There was very little talk of school vouchers, usually a key policy concern for Republicans. Instead, Keegan focused more on changing the way school success is measured. She suggested a formula for making adequate yearly progress (AYP), which would include different goals for different levels of learning. Those students performing in the lower percentile might have different annual goals than those performing in the higher percentile. She also discussed a push for a national performance pay system, in which teacher bonuses and salary increases would be tied, directly or indirectly, to the performance of their students.
Aside from ESEA, CEF members also asked about the Senator’s plans for CTE. Unlike President Bush, Keegan claims Senator McCain is not currently planning to collapse CTE funding into any larger programs. Rather than merging CTE with ESEA or other larger programs, Keegan said that there would be a focus on ensuring that vocational students are being trained to enter their chosen career field with the highest level of occupation understanding. This may include more elaborate national assessments for CTE, but those would be different from other academic assessments, since CTE requires different measurements of success than academic programs.
CEF members were pleased to have this opportunity to question McCain’s top education advisor, a chance that most Americans have not been able to take advantage of this year. While on the campaign trail, the candidates continue to focus on the economy and foreign policy issues facing the country. As long as national polls continue to place these two issues as the most important to Americans, the candidates will continue to speak heavily on each topic, leaving education on the back burner in this election.
