Congressional education committees have
begun hearings on the 1999 reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and the legislative proposals for
amending the Act have now been unveiled by the Clinton
Administration. These important reauthorization activities, however,
have been overshadowed by domestic tragedies in Colorado, Oklahoma,
and Georgia, the international situation in Kosovo, and Senate
debate on the juvenile justice bill.
To date, most of Congress' consideration of school issues has
involved either school violence or a series of leftovers from last
year. The replays have included enactment of a bipartisan Education
Flexibility bill, passage of a number of nonbinding education
funding resolutions, and the reporting for Senate floor action of
another ``Coverdell" private school tuition tax subsidy bill.
Each rerun has cluttered the path for reauthorizing the 1965
landmark federal education law.
The Department of Education's proposal was released only recently
and contains a series of technical changes and accountability
measures added onto the 1994 ESEA framework. The law's current
emphasis on high standards and assessments is retained, and
teacher-credentialing requirements are tightened.
The proposal expands the use of competitive grants and state
discretion in the distribution of most ESEA aid, except for Title I
and a few other programs, putting many urban school districts at a
distinct disadvantage in the search for scarce resources. Many of
the other new provisions represent either procedural changes or
fine-tuning of the 1994 Act
On Capitol Hill, the highest profile proposals for elementary and
secondary education include a Republican ``Dollars to the Classroom"
block grant, and the conservative interest groups' ``Portability"
and ``Super Ed Flex" concepts. Each proposal is structural or
procedural in nature.
The block grant consolidates multiple programs into a single
allocation to the states, while portability allows a federal per
pupil allocation to move with the child, and super ed flex further
deregulates a number of federal education programs, except for the
highly regulated Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.
Teaching quality has arisen as a top priority for both the
Administration and Congress in their Elementary and Secondary
Education Act plans. New provisions have been proposed by the
Administration to increase the number of certified teachers in poor
schools. Beyond that, no substantial new initiatives, and no
grand new ideas to address the nation's toughest education problems
have surfaced.
The Council of the Great City Schools has placed a number
of initiatives on the table, including its American Cities Education
Act (ACE), and is exploring the viability of new legislation on such
critical issues as closing achievement gaps among students of
various racial and income groups.
In addition, the Council is considering larger initiatives to
address such critical national issues as low achievement in poor
urban and rural schools, teacher shortages in inner city schools,
and state finance inequities.
A good starting point might be for our national leaders to
revisit the critical concept of ``Opportunity to Learn" as the
cornerstone of a bolder national strategy to enable the poorest
children to attain the highest educational standards.
