Subject: POLITICO Breaking News
The Education Department is pulling Washington state’s No Child Left Behind waiver because the state has not met the department’s timeline for tying teacher evaluations to student performance metrics.
Washington is the first state to lose its waiver. The loss will give local districts less flexibility in using federal funds. For instance, they may now be required to spend millions on private tutoring services for at-risk students. The waiver revocation could also result in nearly every school across the state being labeled as failing under NCLB.
Washington had pledged in its waiver application to make student growth a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations by the 2014-15 school year. But the state Legislature refused to pass a bill mandating that student performance on statewide assessments be included in teacher evaluations. The department placed the state on “high-risk” status in August. Arizona, Kansas and Oregon are also at risk of losing their waivers.
For more information… http://www.politico.com
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan handed out numerous waivers to states to avoid the 2014 deadline in the No Child Left Behind law.
Under the law, every state must assure that every single child in grades 3-8 is proficient on state tests of reading and mathematics.
No state met the deadline. If the law remains in effect (it was supposed to be reauthorized in 2007, but gets extended year after year), every state would be declared a failed state, and virtually every public school in the United States would be closed or privatized or suffer some other sanction for failing to meet an impossible goal. It bears pointing out that no nation in the world can claim that 100% of its students are proficient in reading and math.
But Duncan didn’t hand out waivers wholesale. Instead, he made the waiver conditional on the state agreeing to accept his conditions, which were similar to the conditions in Race to the Top. In effect, states are now following Race to the Top requirements but without the prize money.
One of the central conditions of the waiver, like Race to the Top, was that states must agree to evaluate their teachers and principals based to a significant degree on the test scores of their students.
Washington State has failed to create such a system. Today Arne Duncan withdrew Washington State’s NCLB waiver to punish it for failing to do as he demanded.
Perhaps legislators in Washington State noticed that this method of evaluating teachers and principals has failed wherever it was tried.
Perhaps they read the joint report of the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association, which cautioned that “value-added measurement” was inaccurate and unstable, and that it measures who is in the classroom rather than teacher quality. The legislators probably did not have a chance to read the recent report of the American Statistical Association, which also cautioned on the use of VAM, because of its imprecision and its unintended effects. But they may have read Stanford Professor Edward Haertel’s advice that states should not set numerical percentages for the use of test scores to evaluate teachers. All of these reports reach the same conclusion: that Duncan’s favorite solution to raising teacher quality does not have evidence to support it.
Let’s hope that Washington State says no to the illegitimate demands of the Secretary of Education. Duncan is overreaching. He is not the nation’s superintendent of schools. He should learn about federalism and about the limited role of the federal government in the area of education.
Meanwhile, I hope that the state of Washington sues the Secretary of Education and helps him learn about federalism and about the importance of evidence in policymaking.
Here is Duncan’s official letter to Washington State, notifying them that they are being punished for defying his orders.
Here is Peter Greene’s deconstruction of Arne Duncan’s letter to Washington State: read here.
I wish Duncan would do the same for New Mexico. I don’t see that happening because he is buddy buddies with the NM Secretary of Education Designee.
Civil disobedience is the act of disobeying a law on grounds of political or moral principle. Now’s the time!
This is a watershed moment (now that it’s not just a bluff, does pulling a NCLB waiver lead the sky to fall in a state? Do the children stop learning and do all of the schools just close? If there is a disaster there, does Duncan get the political blame? Or do the school officials? Bluffs and threats (and the moments just BEFORE a gambit) often have more power than the actual act that is being threatened. Now that that’s happened, what does USDOE have to control states? If this act turns out to be powerless, or if Duncan receives significant backlash for pulling the waiver), do other states follow suite, emboldened knowing that the world will, in fact, not end? ). Watershed moment!!
And, given inBloom’s collapse just a few days ago, this has been one heck of a week for the corporate ed deform movement!
Rescinding the waiver is one thing. States like NY would also have to return RTTT money ($700 million). However if the DOE actually holds back on federal funding to WA the lawyers will jump in and it will probably be left up to the conservative Supreme Court. The same Roberts Court that brought us Citizens United. This will be a very intriguing situation to watch as it unfolds. As Joe Biden once whispered to his boss, “This is a big f@$#$%n deal”
If the RTTT money was already spent on RTTT in NY, must it be returned? Doesn’t RTTT expire in September unless it is extended?
This does basically 2 things to the state of Washington:
A) Ties their hands a lot more in how federal money is used
B) More importantly, holds them to the AYP requirements of NCLB.
From his helpful chart…”An SEA and its LEAs must resume making AYP determinations in accordance with the ESEA requirements beginning with AYP determinations based on the results of assessments administered in the 2013–2014 school year. ”
According to http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/statetesting/ – WA is transitioning between this year and next year to the CCSS and SBAC tests – how will these be remotely comparable for the purposes of establishing an AYP for next year, and then, evaluating whether they meet it for NCLB? Especially if they’re well…new tests with all the flaws therein.
Further, NCLB requires the restructuring of schools AND the ability to transfer from failing schools to non-failing schools for those receiving Title I. Assuming that the entire state will fail to make AYP (or at least 99% of it), what choices do you give those Title 1 kids? Do you offer them all “choice” in the non-Title I failing schools? In lieu of lacking the capacity to offer another choice, they’re supposed to create that capacity. This is going to spin into one of 2 things – either they pull a Bloomberg close-the-schools-and-reopen-them-with-new-names stunt, or, they need to find another state (and accompanying tax base) to build a wealth of non-Title I schools while propping up the “restructuring” districts/schools. It’s obvious refusing Title I would be cheaper than complying with this.
States won’t make safe harbor because literally overnight, they’ll have to set a goal of 10% improvement for all sub-groups, plan to meet it, and do it within 1-2 years.
Finally, it is utterly unclear – if the states do not make AYP, and/or they refuse/are unable to restructure en masse, who gets sued or otherwise arrested by the Federal Government for violating federal law? What happens when you declare an entire state to be failing and demand all schools be restructured (though thankfully, not as charter schools necessarily).
I would imagine a bunch of federal funds for various programs could be withheld. No idea what percentage of total funding that might be, though. It will be interesting to see what happens next. Washington is fighting the good fight!
I think it is time for Washington to sue. I would even send a check! It is time to put the facts before the courts.
Agree.”The principle of states’ rights is outlined in the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that any powers not delegated to the federal government are granted to the states. Education is best accomplished when it is left to local communities, parents, teachers, and states.”
Agree. And that is what our Constitution says. The state can only be overruled on an educational issue when some OTHER right that IS within federal purview is violated–such as the right to equal protection under the law. So, Duncan and Obama (and Bush and Paige and Spellings before them) were in violation of the Constitution. Clearly.
Isn’t NCLB (ridicules mess that it has always been) a federal law? Under what authority was a waver to a federal law issued in the first place? How did RTTT (or as I like to call it race to the flop or as someone here suggested dash to the cash) become the rule above the law?
Confused.
The Secretary of Education’s authority to issue waivers comes from Congress:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/7861
It’s not his job to dictate curriculum or teacher evaluations, Congress’s stupidity notwithstanding.
Susan, federal law prohibits Duncan or any employee of the federal government from supervising, controlling, or directing curriculum or instruction.
FLERP, thank you for the info. That is something I have truly wondered about.
OK, so let me understand.
Congress got it together to pass legislation (they actually had to vote on this, yes?), allowing the sec of ed to issue wavers to a law they passed in the first place.
Have I got that right so far?
Instead of changing/amending or discarding altogether the law that was so problematic (apparently…why else even consider wavers?) they gave an appointed official the authority to add on take away or change around as he saw fit (within some parameters, it seems ) a federal law.
Now I am really lost.
I fully admit that my legal training extends to school house rocks, but this is not how I thought this was supposed to work.
Do you know of any other federal laws that some individual is legally authorized to wave?
Thanks again.
Ang,
Race to the Top is not a federal law. It is a program that was never enacted into law though funded by Congress. The waivers were never enacted into law. Congress sat back and let Duncan write his own laws.
Take a look at this law review article: it’s an endorsement of “big waiver” authority by administrative agencies, but you can ignore that and just look at pages 272 to 281. Pages 272 to 278 give a pretty concise overview of administrative agency waived, and then 279 to 282 describe the waiver scheme for the education department.
And yes, you basically have it right. The waiver authorizations are generally built into the statutes that create the agency and set forth its powers and limits. The rationale is probably that waivers in specific circumstances are the kind of discretionary matter that’s better exercised by the agency than by congress, which has less expertise in the subject matter. And yes, as I think you anticipate, there are arguments at the outer boundaries about how much authority it’s proper for congress to delegate.
There are tons of laws that federal agencies are authorized to waive, subject to specified limitations. The affordable care act is one that’s been in the news lately (the law review article discusses that one).
I realize I didn’t attach the link to the article, duh.
http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol87/iss5/10
And now I see I attached the wrong link just now. Here’s the right one.
Click to access barron-rakoff.pdf
Diane,
As always, thank you for the clear information.
But now I am SUPER confused.
So kids are being denied diplomas, subjected to endless testing and generally tortured, schools are being closed and teachers are losing jobs, getting poor reviews published in the paper and so forth because of a non law strange side step thing?
Today I sat through a LONG faculty meeting where we were threatened within an inch of our lives over the upcoming barrage of testing that will disrupt weeks of what could have been great school days.
And it is not even really a law.
I think I am going to cry.
FLERP! — from the same statute to which you cited:
“(f) Termination of waivers
The Secretary shall terminate a waiver under this section if the Secretary determines, after notice and an opportunity for a hearing, that the performance of the State or other recipient affected by the waiver has been inadequate to justify a continuation of the waiver or if the waiver is no longer necessary to achieve its original purposes.”
The statute is silent as to when termination of the waiver is within the Secretary’s discretionary. The only “termination” provision is for when termination is mandatory, e.g., “The Secretary shall terminate….” I’m thinking Duncan abused his discretion in terminating the waiver, and that his action was arbitrary and capricious (not to mention vindictive… which is arbitrary and capricious). What do you think?
Seems to me that if the state can’t show that its performance was good enough to justify a continuation of the waiver, the termination won’t be arbitrary and capricious.
Duncan’s and Obama’s education policies are really impeachable offenses, and that’s why I think both should be subject to impeachment hearings. The problem is Congress is right there with them in the destruction of American public education.
ridiculous mess
A very interesting gambit as we move into the mid-term elections. The arrogance of this guy is exceeded only by his ignorance.
I hope WA will fight back in court. I would hope the state can get a stay on the withdrawal of the waiver given the immediate harm the withdrawal could have on the children. The we can explore the constitutionality of the program and the meaning of “arbitrary and capricious”.
The NCLB waiver has provided better outcomes for children. Shame on Duncan for using children as political pawns.
Duncan’s waiver denial is off-base and disregards the extensive teacher evaluation work being done in the state. When our state legislature failed to mandate use of student test scores in evaluations, they were refusing to change the word “may” to “must.” Duncan wanted the stronger of the two. But absent from Duncan’s conclusion is the fact that WA has enacted a strong statewide teacher evaluation program that goes into full effect next year (this after several years if piloting). Based off the TPEP (Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project: http://tpep-wa.org) pilot work, our state requires that districts adopt one of three research-based instructional frameworks to double as the teacher evaluation tool. Those frameworks, Danielson’s, Marzano’s, and the University of Washington’s 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning (5 Ds) describe in detail what effective instruction looks like, provide cycles of inquiry and feedback that allow teachers to improve their practice over time and with the help of trained administrators, and include student-growth as a required component of the evaluation. These frameworks require faithful implementation, and WA districts are free to choose which model they prefer, but all indications are that these frameworks are a vast improvement on WA prior methods of evaluation.
Washington’s educators are working hard to do right by their students. Duncan’s assessment that we’re failing them by not mandating the use of test scores is not research-based and has no bearing on our responsibility as teachers: to ensure student learning.
State Representative Chris Reykdal was one of the legislators that refused to be held hostage to Duncan. Here is Reykdal’s statement: http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/chris-reykdal/statement-from-rep-reykdal-regarding-the-nclb-waiver-loss/
Thanks for this link. Just retweeted it. Your Rep gets it!! I hope he becomes a nat’l spokesperson on this issue.
Yes, Representative Chris Reykdal is a superstar! You can add Rep. Gerry Pollet and Rep. Mike Sells to the list. These representatives were the individuals that had the courage to stand-up to Duncan.
Beautifully stated. This a politician I will eagerly support.
Thanks for that link. I think it very effectively skewered the DOE.
“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,”
This quote should be engraved in the Smithsonian.
As Duncan and all the CCSS start crumbling, the next step will be to blame everyone except themselves.
OK, cursing is not allowed on Diane’s site, so what comes most readily to mind when I think of Arne Duncan is not allowed.
This man is thick as a brick. He is a bull in the china shop of U.S. education. His only skills are the low cunning of the sycophant and toadie. He lacks culture and understanding and knowledge and experience. He is ignorant and arrogant, and both in the extreme. He is guilty of malfeasance and misfeasance. He is causing incalculable damage to our kids, teachers, and schools.
There is quite a competition for Worst Secretary of Education in the short history of this rogue department, but Arne wins hands down, don’t you think?
Arne “Dunkin” Duncan, Secretary of the Department for the Privatization of U.S. Education, formerly the USDE. Windup toy for would be looters of the U.S. treasury, those plutocrats whom he says “have no seat at the table.”
The man is as thick, as crude as they come. He is an embarrassment to our country, a complete disgrace to his office.
He may regret this move for the rest of his life. May this be the beginning of the end of corp edu reform & his 1% friends.
There is no competition here. Duncan is the worst cabinet appointee in the history of the United States.
Remember there was Rod Paige and his Texas Miracle that turned out to be a lie!
For many years I thought Bill Bennett was the worst Sec of Education. Then. Came. Duncan. He wins the booby prize.
Many, many, many of us knew that NCLB was bad and the 100% goal was a joke! It was bad enough, but these subsequent demands dig the hole deeper and deeper…somehow we will end up in China at this rate. They are waiting for us to keep digging and look like the most uneducated, full of hot air, nation which absolutely demands to be first in the world, at any cost.
Embarrassing!
Meanwhile, our children, parents and caring teachers are trying to survive the longest nightmare with no end in sight.
That is so true! This is the longest nightmare. Sometimes I just want to give up but my kids need me. Thank goodness for all of you to keep me going. I’m so glad that we have legislators who understand that this plane being built in mid-air needs to be permanently grounded.
And that is not Duncan’s job, to be a blackmailer. Again, where are the impeachment hearings?
Exactly. He is a blackmailer.
So is Tennessee still the ed reform state, or do they get kicked out of the club? 🙂
“Gov. Bill Haslam has signed into law a bill that will prevent student growth on tests from being used to revoke or not renew a teacher’s license — undoing a controversial education policy his administration had advanced just last summer.
The governor’s signature, which came Tuesday, follows the Tennessee General Assembly’s overwhelming approval this month of House Bill 1375 / Senate Bill 2240, sponsored by Republicans Rep. John Forgety and Sen. Jim Tracy, which cleared the House by a unanimous 88-0 vote and the Senate by a 26-6 vote.
That marked a major repudiation of a policy the Tennessee Board of Education in August adopted — at Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman’s recommendation — that would have linked license renewal and advancement to a teacher’s composite evaluation score as well as data collected from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which measures the learning gains of students.”
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/04/24/haslam-signs-bill-undoing-controversial-teacher-license-policy/8121885/?utm_campaign=%5B%27buffer%27%5D&utm_content=%5B%27bufferb3952%27%5D&utm_source=%5B%27twitter.com%27%5D&utm_medium=%5B%27social%27%5D
Is Haslam up for re-election, by chance?!
We had some wins in TN in spite of Huffman, Haslam, and the super majority . Here’s the report from TREE
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=41ebf49f55be502087c34c9b8&id=b601449576&e=43935ac0a7
I wish the Obama Administration were as aggressive pushing something that actually helps people.
This has the potential to be a very revealing episode, suggesting that the triumphalist script of the so-called reformers might need to be revised. It may show that, for all their power, wealth and arrogance, they are more vulnerable than imagined.
Duncan is not in a good situation here: if Washington State refuses to blink on this waiver, then what does he do? The federal government by itself can’t close those “now-failing under NCLB” schools, so does he threaten to withhold Title I money in retaliation? That really, really doesn’t look good.
If he threatens retaliation, the absurd mean-spiritedness of so-called reform is further revealed. They’re in effect saying, “We’ll intentionally harm children because a state government won’t do something that it believes will harm children.” There will be a political price for that.
Yet, if Duncan can’t successfully cajole or threaten people to get in line, then resistance by others will follow. If that starts happening on multiple fronts, then the illusion that the so-called reformers are invincible might start to be questioned. Passive acceptance of high stakes tests, as profit centers and weapons, is a lynchpin of the entire system; resistance to them threatens the whole house of cards.
Whatever the power and wealth of so-called education reform, it is largely driven by a group of people that, however ravenous and devious, they may be, is relatively small.
We – parents, students, teachers, citizens – are many. They are few, and at the center of their drive and ideology is an amoral void that can make their entire project break down.
“We – parents, students, teachers, citizens – are many. They are few, and at the center of their drive and ideology is an amoral void that can make their entire project break down.”
I think I will put this on my desk so I can look it every day for the next two weeks (“testing season” for my kids).
Thank you
May I repost this comment on our Knox Co. SPEAK website? It’s a perfect characterization Duncan’s pickle.
If you’re asking me, jcgrim, please go ahead…
Cluster’s Last Stand?
Could work!!
Millions of caring parents and educators know the right thing.
Michael, we can only hope.
Scrap the map, and send back the dirty money to the feds, along with some aplets and cotlets just to be polite.
Send the money back to the feds but send the aplets and cotlets to me. Had never heard of them until now. They sound good.
Arne Duncan is Obama’s James Watt
Yup.
On the other hand, imagine what horror will come out of Congress and Duncan’s DOE if they re-work NCLB.
Can’t we just keep waiving it /not waiving it/ fighting over it forever?
“First do no harm” 🙂
or his Brownie!
LOVE THIS! From State Representative Chris Reykdal:
“I strongly encourage federal officials to use this moment in history to model Washington State’s success instead of using us as an example of federal government power and leverage. I challenge the federal government to turn a corner on education reform, fix the deeply-flawed and failed No Child Left Behind Act, and get back to empowering the states instead of coercing them.
No Child Left Behind is a failed policy of the Bush administration that focuses on student failure and school punishment. This is no way to run a public education system. Enacting bad policy at the state level as a result of bad policy at the federal level will not help schools – and certainly won’t help students – be successful.”
He is driven not by greed but by policy that helps students become successful. It is refreshing that someone is finally addressing what is BEST FOR STUDENTS! He is a Hero with outstanding courage!
We have a strong core of legislators that “get it” and understand the ramifications of tying test scores to teachers’ evaluations.
Of course, all of them will be under massive attack when they come up for re-election.
Dora Taylor
Thank god. Wisdom and decency in Washington State.
I wrote to Reykdal. Maybe God will send someone like him to New Jersey. We could use some divine intervention about now.
ESSB 5246
Teacher and principal evals
Senate vote on 3rd Reading & Final Passage
2/18/2014
Yeas: 19 Nays: 28 Absent: 0 Excused: 2
Voting Yea: Senator Angel, Bailey, Becker, Braun, Dammeier, Fain, Hewitt, Hill, Holmquist Newbry, Honeyford, King, Litzow, Mullet, O’Ban, Parlette, Rivers, Schoesler, Sheldon, Tom
Voting Nay: Senator Benton, Billig, Brown, Chase, Cleveland, Conway, Dansel, Darneille, Ericksen, Fraser, Frockt, Hargrove, Hasegawa, Hatfield, Hobbs, Keiser, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Liias, McAuliffe, McCoy, Nelson, Padden, Pearson, Pedersen, Ranker, Roach, Rolfes
Why would the group of people voting no, who agree on very few issues, agree on this?
Pam Roach and Doug Ericksen voting with Kevin Ranker and Rosemary McAuliffe? Interesting statistical case for someone like Malcolm Gladwell.
Washington State is the Fiscal Agent for Smarter Balanced Testing Consortium and signed this agreement with Duncan and U.S. Department of Education.
How will this play out?
Will another state have to sign on as the Fiscal Agent?
CA never received a dime of RTTT. Why are they implementing Common Core? All of CA doesn’t even have a waiver.
I am working on a doctoral research project inspired by Diane’s book, Death and Life of the Great American School System (2011). If the public school system–as many of us knew it, at least–is dead or near death, it would stand to reason that public school teachers who remember the system as it was prior to No Child Left Behind (2002) have experienced loss and grief. If you remember what it was like to teach prior to No Child Left Behind, if you feel as if teaching completely changed when No Child Left Behind was implemented, or if you ever felt saddened by some of the changes that resulted from educational reform, then you may be interested in taking my survey.
Professional Loss and Grief in Teachers (a survey)
https://ndstate.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5nCLnPAFadWZX93
This reminds me of another unpopular federal law, the mandatory 55 mph passed in the 1970s. State governments, transportation industries, and individual drivers all disliked the 55 mph, especially on interstate highways. Then, throughout the 1980s, states began circumventing the law by through their enforcement authority. States reduced or even removed the fines for exceeding 55. Over time (unfortunately a long time), so many states “rebelled” against the law, that in 1995 the federal law was finally repealed.
NCLB and RTTT may have to be dealt with similarly. If so, a lot of students’ education will be harmed in the slow process of such change.
from the politico link-
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she was “deeply disappointed” by the waiver revocation. Congress, she said, needs to take swift action to revise No Child Left Behind.
Well, there are some empty words with absolutely no plan of action.
Well, she’s a powerful person as the chairperson of the budget of the U.S. Senate. She addresses the problem to be with No Child Left Behind legislation, not the independent vote of the Washington State Senate.
That looks like a small degree of progress to me.
Perhaps, but not too swift, since all of the current proposals floating around out there to replace it are all much worse incarnations. We would not want to rush through some ALEC-written bill that would grant legally even more overreach for the Federal DOE (like S 1094 for example). I agree NCLB is bad but let’s make sure we are careful about how we fix it…
What an exercise in mass madness!! No country, ever, has had 100% of its students be “proficient” in school. Nor has any nation had 100% of its citizens be law-abiding, or able to run a 6-minute mile, or even to be able to sew on a button! And instead if saying “whoa– NCLB, which mandated that 100% of all students in the USA be proficient or advanced in math & reading — that’s nuts, let’s repeal that”, instead , Arne Dincan and the Obama administration and politicians and billionaires in both parties look around for other ways to shut down schools and pad the pocketbooks of education sleaze- Meistersinger, via the “waivers” of Race to the Trough. Nuts, I say.
Guy Brandenburg Sent from my iPhone so full of hilarious errors… ;-€}}
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I didn’t know they mandated such a huge chunk of change for private tutoring under NCLB. They essentially created an entire edu-profit industry:
“A Texas Tribune investigation has uncovered years of inaction by state officials while money flowed to tutoring companies, delivering few academic results and flouting state law. As companies racked up complaints — and school districts spent further resources investigating them — the state agency responsible for administering the program repeatedly claimed it had no authority to intervene.
A provision in the federal education law requires low-performing schools to set aside 20 percent of the -federal funding they receive for economically disadvantaged students to pay for “supplemental education services,” or tutoring, in middle and high school. In the last six years, Texas school districts have spent $180 million on such services, primarily from private providers.
As the academic standards that schools had to meet under federal law ratcheted higher each year, the number of schools required to set aside money for tutoring grew — and so did their troubles with the private companies providing the services.
As early as 2009, school administrators began reporting claims of falsified invoices, overly aggressive student recruitment and questionable instruction methods. They doubted the academic benefit of such programs — something internal agency evaluations had already suggested and would soon confirm. They detailed the use of iPads, phones and laptops as incentives for students to enroll in the services. They described instances of company representatives paying students and teachers to recruit for their programs and showing up without permission — or without criminal history background checks — on school property. One East Texas principal expressed alarm that the owner of a tutoring company working on campus was also listed on an adult entertainment website.”
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/10/07/5226253/largely-unchecked-tutors-got-millions.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Does the general public realize that all children are due to morph into scholar students sometime this spring?
Even eighth grade graduates realize that this is bogus.
So, why can’t Congress get it’s act together and annul NCLB once and for all?
And why should Washington be quaking in their boots about the pittance they receive from the federal government? I’d tell them to keep their money (but a little more forcefully) and then send Duncan’s letter back with a note – “return to sender, address unknown”.
And how will Duncan save face when other states follow suit? I can’t wait to see it happen.
If Obama wants the Dems to do well in the midterm elections, I suggest that he remove Duncan from office ASAP. And Cuomo needs to do the same with King.
That will be the first step in the right direction.
These threats from the feds really DO have few teeth. Which is why I wish that more states would stand up to them. States spend far more on the stupid mandated testing than they get in federal funds.
Utah tried to pull out of NCLB several years ago. I was really hoping that the legislature would vote to pull us out, but the USDOE sent in a squadron of people and the bill quietly died. I’ve always wondered what the USDOE promised our legislators in order to keep them toeing the line.
Refreshing to hear Ravitch state..”Meanwhile, I hope that the state of Washington sues the Secretary of Education and helps him learn about federalism and about the importance of evidence in policymaking…” Let us hope that there are still “checks and balances” in our government and that justice prevails.
One man is not an island and Duncan will finally have to face the law and finally PROVE that all his “education reform” dictates are not baloney. As we professional educators know all too well, he just won’t be able to prove that. Hats off to the State of Washington for bringing this forward! Bill Gates will be seeing this disaster unfold from “his porch”.
It is entirely sad that Duncan cares more about staying entrenched in failed policy and DESTROYING STUDENT EDUCATIONAL LIVES in an entire state rather than admitting his whole tenure as Ed Secretary has been a failure and backing down on allowing a waiver to continue.
So is this the proverbial shot heard round the world… the straw that broke the camel’s back… the turning point…?
The. NCLB law is blatantly unconstitutional. Common Core is also unconstitutional. Why doesn’t congress shut Arne Duncan and his over reaching federal arms down?? What happened to upholding the 14th amendment? I think the whole federal department of education should be abolished.
Because that would require Congress to actually be functional.
Bring it, Arne. The education community of the entire nation is watching and things are not stacking up well for you. I hope you play hardball better than you played basketball.
I think he thinks he is the nation’s superintendent. That’s a good way to put it.
What is the job description of Sec of Ed anyway? Do they have one?
The Secretary of Education is sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws, not o make up his own. His fist obligation is equality of educational opportunity, not racing to a mythical top.
Let’s all hope that Washington State stands up to this playground bully.
Arne Duncan, you bring shame upon your office.
And Arne pegs the Coleman meter. A perfect 10.0!
Simple solution: Get the federal government OUT of education. Trust people in their local communities to provide safe, effective public schools for their children. The vast majority of funding for schools comes from the state and local taxpayers, so why is everyone dancing to Arne Duncan’s tune?
A very, very good question, Green Mountain!
Because Bill Gates owns both Duncan and Obama, and Gates believes there should be federal standards because the itty-bitty European countries have them. This despite these countries having different legal systems from ours.
Bill Gates believes there should be universal standards because he stands to profit from all the reform. New computers, computer programs, training, and content will all feed his already bottomless pockets. Infuriating.
As harmful as Gates has been to the teaching profession, I find it hard to question his sincerity. He seems to genuinely believe what he’s saying, and I can kind of see how in a purely theoretical world some of what he says makes sense. Because of this, it’s really hard for me to believe that he’s in this for the profit. Am I wrong?
Don’t misunderstand my view of Gates. I despise his impact on education in this country.
At both state and federal levels, public time and money is being wasted by individuals without the knowledge or qualifications to run a school,…let alone oversee schools at a comprehensive level. If all of the money that has been wasted on both NCLB and RTTT had been appropriately allocated to schools, the public school system would be thriving.
Completely agree. Ironically, the biggest supporters of RTTT and the Common Core argue that it would cost so many millions more to replace the Common Core. Check out Louisiana where Governor Jindal (an original supporter of CCSS) had withdrawn support for CCSS, but the state superintendent is fighting to keep it as if his life depended on it.
You’re correct but here’s a novel idea for them! Why can’t we just abolish the entire mess? Replace? It doesn’t cost a penny to “scrap” something altogether! Oh, I’m sorry….we’re forgetting….it would cost all of the ed-deforming profiteers billions!!
SO VERY CORRECT, Kzahedi!!! Think of all the the remodeled older schools, the new schools, the additional classrooms, the additional needed supplies and textbooks, and, MOST IMPORTANT, the ADDITIONAL TEACHERS that we could have hired to create SMALLER CLASSROOM SIZES!!!–now THAT’S where we could have seen REAL DIFFERENCE and our public school systems would definitely be thriving!