Mercedes Schneider has diligently slogged through all 601 pages of the Alexander-Murray bill. I am late posting this because I was traveling, so it lacks the acknowledgement that the Senate committee approved it unanimously with some amendments.
This is her final installment. It includes links to her previous five reports on the bill.
There is much to be learned here, but the central point of this legislation is to prevent the Secretary of Education from telling states and districts how to run their schools. Of course, this has nothing to do with civil rights enforcement. It is a reflection of how both parties feel about Arne Duncan’s intrusive mandates that dictated how states and districts are supposed to turnaround low-performing schools, as well as his advocacy for Common Core and for the two assessments he funded. If this bill passes in its current form (it must still be approved by the full Senate and House), Duncan will no longer have the power to tell states and districts what to do and how to do it.
This is vintage Lamar Alexander. He has always said he didn’t want a “national school board.” When he was Secretary of Education, he had a keen sense of federalism and didn’t want the federal government telling everyone how to run their schools, not even himself.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Someone from Colorado Springs wrote an editorial in our local paper this week that said the revised No Child Left Behind Act is “definitely not an improvement. She talked about 3 problems:
First it does not allow states to opt out, therefore not returning control of the schools to the people through their local jurisdictions. Second, the federal government retains control over the assessments of the children. And last but most important in my mind, state Medicaid costs will skyrocket as psychological services in the “affective domain” — attitudes, values, beliefs and dispositions of the children are included in the bill. What is the government doing setting standards for our children’s attitudes, values and beliefs??
I would be interested in getting your feedback on these points, since you have read the entire bill.
Thank you!
Sandra Wickham
Woodland Park, CO
Hi, Sandra. I have not yet read the approved amendments to the Senate draft and will try to do so and write a post this weekend.
Would it be possible, within that post, to touch on the bill and amendments that were passed, and what differs from the train wreck we have now? My district in California is one of the C.O.R.E. districts that received a waiver from Duncan himself, without the approval (or even knowledge) of the teachers, parents, etc., within the district. So many teachers here are leaving, we do not enough substitutes to fill jobs, and everyone (except our supe) is demoralized.
I am hoping for some good news.
This is vintage Lamar Alexander from 1989. He thinks schools should be open year round, from 6 AM to 6 PM to children 3 months old to 18. He thinks the state can be a much better parent to a child than real parents. He was scary then. He is scarier now. He’s just learned how to wrap his intentions in nice sounding phrases for the air wave sound bites and just confuse everybody with 600 pages of congress-speak so that nobody wants to read it.
His bill is about increasing the number of charter schools, continuing a torturous testing schedule, implementing invasive social and emotional screening and interventions paid for by Medicaid into every public school, and codifying outcome based soviet style school to work training as a replacement for true classical education.
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.
Metaphorically a “Trojan Horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to allow a foe into a securely protected bastion or space.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.