Laura H. Chapman provides here the relevant federal statutes that restrict the role of federal officials to prevent federal intrusion and control of public education. The prohibition of federal employees exercising any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, instruction or personnel of public schools was enacted when the U.S. Department of Education was created in 1979. Secretary Duncan insists that the Department of Education is not directing or influencing curriculum or instruction by its ardent support for the Common Core standards or its $360 million funding of CCSS tests. We all know that standards and tests don’t influence curriculum and instruction, right?
Legal Restriction: “U. S. Congress. General Provisions Concerning Education. (2010, February). Section 438 (20 U.S.C. § 1232a). US Code TITLE 20 EDUCATION CHAPTER 31, SUBCHAPTER III, Part 2, §§ 1232a. Prohibition against Federal control of education. No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, or to require the assignment or transportation of students or teachers in order to overcome racial imbalance.” Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/20/usc_sup_01_20.html
Legal Restriction: “The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002). Section 9527 ESEA amended by NCLB (20 U.S.C. § 7907(a).1) This provision is based on 20 U.S.C. 7907(a) (Section 9527(a) of NCLB). Section 7907(a) is one of the ESEA’s general provisions contained in Title IX of the Act. It states: Nothing in this [Act] shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school’s curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this [Act]. 20 U.S.C. 7907(a).”
Since 2002 federal officials have been threading legal needles with the carefully contrived language of “deniability” if they are accused of violating federal law.
No one in Congress has the interest or courage to call for the hearings needed to expose the damage, incompetence, and under the table deals with lobbyists–all enabling the destruction of public education except for the funding that will subsidize for-profit schemes conjured by billionaires who see education the nation’s young people as a source of profit and, in some cases,opportunity for indoctrination.
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This is interesting; the federal govt. was not to get involved in the “personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system” yet thru RTTT and now the NCLB waivers, the US Dept of Ed has mandated that all states and districts must evaluate teachers at least partly through the test scores of their students, or else face penalties including the restriction in their use of Title I funds and send a letter to every parent, saying their child’s school is failing.
It gets tricky, though, federalism and ed reform, because it’s used as a sword and shield.
Governor Kasich didn’t accept the Obama policy on unlimited charter schools and test ‘n punish and the rest because the jackboot of the mighty federal government was on his neck. He accepted those things because his agenda for public ed is identical to that of Congress and the President.
You’re seeing it now with standardized testing. The federal ed reformers are blaming the states for the ridiculous testing regimes, and the really reckless decision to rank teachers and schools to the Common Core test scores. Both George Miller and Duncan are making weak statements about how states “should” or “should not” use the scores. If states DO use the scores immediately to sanction teachers and schools they’ll simply hide behind “it’s state policy”.
If we want to hold both the feds and the state actors accountable for decisions they make, we can’t give the state actors OR the fed actors the federalism shield, just as a gimmee. They’ll use it to hide behind. GOP governors are doing it now with the CC and the administration and Congress will do it with the CC and charter schools.
It has to be a case by case basis. Did the state actor ACTUALLY oppose these federal policies at the time? Was it really “coercion”? On the other end, the fed end, what has Duncan done to reduce testing? He mandated testing and ranking teachers on scores. He should have the power to reduce it.
It is certainly a tightrope that has been walked by educators with the increasing federal involvement in education. Human nature allows us to overlook federal over reach when the outcome of said over reach suits our own goals. Eventually though the over reach becomes so encompassing that we get caught up in the tentacles ourselves. That is what has happened with the educators. Today a teacher has lost virtually all authority over their classroom becoming executors of government mandated “standards”
What a sad and sorry state of affairs for teachers and students alike.
You see it with charter schools. National charter schools promoters in both government and lobbying circles must be aware that charter school regulation is state law. They had and have no earthly idea what states will or would do with “lifting the cap” and either did the Obama Administration.
Now that it’s done, we get these hand-wringing, ineffectual admissions that it’s been a disaster in states like OH, MI, FL and PA, yet the national people do nothing. They can’t do anything. They don’t write state law. Instead we get these silly, useless proclamations, like that of Bill Clinton’s, that charter schools “should” or “should not” do something or other. That’s a dodge. He pushed this NATIONALLY, along with Bush and Obama. Now that it’s done they want to pass the buck to states? That’s nice. Maybe they can tell me how to dislodge the huge ed reform lobby from my legislature, because I’m out of ideas.
Were they not aware charter school regulation is state law? Come on. They’re hiding behind the fed/state split.
A lawsuit, even if it’s chances were only 50 / 50 would be a great way to build wider awareness of this issue in the public sphere.
The average federal contribution to state budgets for k-12 education is currently about 12% . USDE extracts compliance with all sorts of rules if states accept these funds. Refusing them is not really an option. Prior to the 2008 meltdown, the average federal contribution was about 8%.
The variability in funding state-to-state has increased with Race to the Top and Duncan’s control of the largest discretionary budget in history. In the aftermath of the economic meltdown, states had to compete for RttT funds.
Many more states applied for RttT funds than received them. The conditions for APPLYING included proofs that the state had or would hard-wire into their policies the absurd testing and teacher evaluation policies that you now find in so many states.
The plot thickens when you realize that USDE has awarded grants to PR firms, for the purpose of offering states “technical assistance” and with freedom to add their own spin on the RttT requirements nationally.
Look at the publications for the “Reform Support Network” at the USDE website to see the propaganda mill created to push for the requirements in RttT in all states. The policies are so alien to the functions of public education that USDE had to hire PR firms to market and enforce them. And the PR firms issue slick publications that typically have only RSN as the identified “author.”
Trying to track down who writes the RSN publications is next to impossible. I did find that one of the sub-contacts for this work when to Education First, a consultancy headed by people who worked for the Gates’ advocacy operations for the CCSS.
If you are teaching in a one of the 26 states that now require you to write Student Learning Objectives (and variations thereof) you will see that this requirement is not in written into the RttT legislation. It is the result of USDE outsourcing the interpretation of the law to PR firms and agencies that offered up SLOs as a solution to RttT requirements for teacher evaluation in untested subjects. SLOs are a proxy for VAM until, as in Florida, all grades and all subjects are tested for the purpose of producing test scores for teacher evaluations.
Do you really think Bobby Jindal was “coerced” into Common Core? he supported it enthusiastically until it became a political problem. How about Rick Scott in Florida? Coerced into ranking teachers?
I see your point but I don’t want to give all of them an out. If the Common Core “implementation” goes poorly, they will do the same thing they are doing with charter schools and testing: the federal politicians will blame states and the state politicians will blame the feds.
Here’s how it will end up: at the door of local public schools, who had the LEAST to do with any of it and the same federal and state policymakers will roll blithely along to the next project, with no accountability for anything.
Laura,
What is RSN?
Duane, RSN stands for “Reform Support Network” Here is a path to the latest publication http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/implementationsupportunit/techassist/resources.html
Thanks!
Hi Laura,
Is the RSN website below correct? I was unable to locate it even at the advanced level. It says the site was “redesigned” so I’m wondering if there was a typo or if they have made it harder to find material.
Florence. Try this and explore the categories.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/implementation-support-unit/tech-assist/index.html
So who do we get to file charges and prosecute?
Mark Collins, ask your Congressman and Senators to stop Duncan from violating the law.
After a few minutes I thought about my Congressional Reps. Just finished filling out the notes on their websites. I hope others follow suite.
http://www.petition2congress.com/15685/dump-arne-duncan/
I’m going to add a few words and send off to my Congressional Rep. and two Senators. Curious as to how they will respond. Suggest others do the same.
So why is this allowed to happen? It’s great to have a law or a statute, but it means nothing if no action is taken when it is disobeyed. NO ACTION is being taken. Who are the people that can take action? Why are they not doing so?
Jen, Congress should rein Duncan in. He is out of control. He violates the clear letter and spirit of the law with impunity. No one has standing to sue him, apparently. But Congress has the power to stop him. Yes, he does believe that he is the nation’s superintendent of schools. But we know that Bill Gates is, not Arne Duncan. Together they own our schools.
http://www.petition2congress.com/15685/dump-arne-duncan/