I am happy to say that Mercedes Schneider is reading the 600+ page bill written by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, under the bipartisan leadership of Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Patti Murray of Washington State.
She is reading every word of it, a daunting task. She is up to page 136. What she sees is that the bill restricts the powers of the Secretary of Education and prohibits him/her from telling states what to do unless specifically authorized by the law. Thus far, she is pleased with what she has read.
We can anticipate more posts, as she goes through the bill. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it, other than committee staff in the Senate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
as always, thank you diane & mercedes!
LikeLike
This proposed legislation assumes that all Education Secretaries are as incompetent as Mr. Duncan. That is a grave error and short sighted assumption. The way a large percentage of Americans are feeling and including readers of this blog, it is glaringly apparent that We the People (well not all of us) want the end of federal involvement in public education outside of money. This is devastating to me and to anyone who truly believes in public education. Treating children like they are the property of their local school districts denies many to a quality education. The intellectual rights of children do not belong to local school boards and dictatorial superintendents and yet that is what a majority are supportimg. Good luck in 2016 when a Democrat no longer holds the White House and vouchers become the new reality. Anyone who supports the current trajectory of public education is not a true supporter. I for one sounded the alarms on Mr. Duncan in December 2008 and where was the outrage and activism then? There wasn’t. Now we want to perpetuate a misconception that Education Secretaries are Yertle the Turtle. It is time to take a long and hard look in the mirror of realiry if you believe you are truly a supporter of public education.
LikeLike
@Marcie Lipsitt
Have you ever heard that a smart bird chooses “the” branch where it lands on? Who would profoundly want to be born into a country and family where he/she suffers emotional, physical and spiritual ABUSE?
If you can answer these two basic questions with your honesty, then your above expression is INVALID. (Just a note to remind you about the reason of migration for survival)
HUMAN beings are naturally born with CONSCIENCE. This means that people all yearn for happiness which comes from a healthy body, mind and spirit that are enhanced by the SPIRIT OF LIBERTY or DEMOCRACY.
Federal PARAMETERS in education MUST ultimately FOLLOW the TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY protocol or procedure that
is guided by an election of ALL “creme of crops” educational experts from 50 States both public and private sectors. ONLY the smartest, the fittest, and the strongest in terms of humanity, compassion and wisdom in each state can be ELECTED by teachers (local, regional, district and final in state level) once every 10 years, “NOT APPOINTED” in this MAKE-UP body of educational experts.
From these parameters, each State and District can FREELY adopt and create their own curriculum, assessments, exams to nurture their local students from their parents’ tax duty, as long as their students can pass the NATIONAL EXAM at grade 11 and 12 before students decide to go to vocational schools or college where tuition fees are fully paid/ sponsored by corporate and big business who businesses are traditionally gained from their future employees.
Your expression completely shows a controlled style, and FORGETS about DEMOCRACY in CREATIVITY and in HUMANITY.
I disagree with you in this particular suggestion or worrisome of your post. Back2basic
LikeLike
What a bad joke. as if the ideal for children is for them to be seen as “property” by private companies, with their appointed boards, that profit from running minimally regulated charter schools (whether they are designated as for-profits or non-profits).
If “vouchers become the new reality,” it will be because Democrats have done nothing to stop their proliferation during this administration, when public funds are already going to increasing numbers of religious schools in many areas, despite the separation of church and state doctrine.
There is not much worse than Democratic apologists who decry the democracy of elected school boards and profer that a party which was turned right-wing under Clinton, and has very strong ties to corporate backers promoting the privatization of public education and other public services, has any commitment to the working class or their children. These are the people responsible for the outsourcing of millions of jobs to foreign countries, who have done nothing to ameliorate poverty or create jobs programs here. Not to mention the billionaires they let off the hook for crashing the economy and corporations they allow to dodge taxes, including from assets hidden offshore.
Look at the fairy tale in your own damned mirror. The face of the best interests of children is not the almighty dollar that Democrats pray to, just like their accomplices in the GOP. Try to get a clue about what’s going on when Republicans pour millions of dollars into the elections of Democrats, like Emanuel and Cuomo.
LikeLike
As I am sitting here eating my lunch, I am beginning to have hope! Hopefully, the state of Ohio will wake up and not continue to allow the PARCC monster, along with the developmentally inappropriate Common Core, to devour all of my instructional time. My students and I are suffering. Pearson will have to find other ways to make its billions.
Thank you very much for giving me hope on this rainy day in Ohio. As far as John Kasich goes, he will not be governor of Ohio forever. I know he will never be President of the United States. What goes around always comes around.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
LikeLike
as if congressional staff even have time to read these huge documents….
LikeLike
Bravo Mercedes. You’re doing what probably NO ONE in the House or Senate has actually done. Read an entire bill. Thanks!
LikeLike
Look for the Trojan Horses! There bound to be in the content.
LikeLike
Yes. Thank you, Mercedes. It is a daunting task but. You have conquered this type of task in the past! Now, in NYS, our State Assembly just passed a budget that included very damaging education legislation without reading it! They we’re given, in the final 1hour before the vote, 900 pages to read. In order to be good soldiers,they voted to pass the punitive budget without reading it. To make it sound better, they all said they did so with “heavy hearts”!
LikeLike
Disgusting state of affairs for the children in NY.
LikeLike
Is federal funding tied to test score improvements?
LikeLike
Mercedes is reading the Senate version. Unless I am mistaken there are some prospects for changes ahead and the very clever lobbyists know how to slip what they want into the final bill just before the final vote. So, Mercedes is doing a service if, in addition to discerning what’s there and some of the implications, she is also paying attention to the “not there.” She is good at that.
In 2002, I downloaded the entire NCLB law, reformatted it in Words to eliminate the excessive white space, reduced the wide margins, and reduced the type size. I could then did some key word searches to find the recurring themes and sections with big implications likely to be overlooked.
I then took the key features bearing on the work of teachers, and condensed those to give my colleagues a heads-up on what was coming down the pike with the AYP, the status of schools not making AYP, the number of “chances” to get out of “INI status ( in need of improvement–and the rest.
A by-product of this exercise was the realization that slush funds for charter schools could be created. That USDE had a created an elaborate taxonomy of schools with “traditional public school” appearing to be an alien thing. I also discerned the great irony of legislation that used the phrase “scientifically based” 111 times while offering up iron-first requirements did not align with that criterion and could never meet that criterion.–the prime example being 100% students will be proficient in reading and math by 2014–with no definition of “proficiency.”
So, this is tedious and necessary work. Mercedes will be well poised to look at the difference between this Senate bill and what the final law calls for.
LikeLike
Laura, you are one of the best in terms of educational ANGEL. I really love your wisdom. May
LikeLike
Thank you, Mercedes!!
LikeLike
Mercedes should be nominated for educator of the century for taking on such a herculean task of reading a convoluted, dense bill. Kudos to her, a millions thanks for her fortitude and determination. How many of us would do what Mercedes is doing?
I can’t wait for her breakdown of the bill and those items that will put some politicians in the hot seat.
LikeLike
Will the new bill retain the requirement for SBR? This could mean trouble for reformers who have been building this plane while its in a tailspin! Forcing the implementation of untested and unproven programs or policies will be illegal.
LikeLike
Thank you Mercedes! NY State Legislature did not even read their own laws before voting on them!
LikeLike
TGFT! The Atlantic reported that “Alexander dropped his controversial school-choice proposal to have federal Title I dollars, which are earmarked for the poorest kids, follow low-income students who transfer to new campuses, including charter schools.” That sounds contrary to other reports of the law promoting charter school expansion, so a fine grained analysis is truly needed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/is-america-nearing-the-end-of-the-no-child-left-behind-era/390030/?utm_source=btn-twitter-control
Since I don’t have the time to go through it, I’m looking forward to hear what Mercedes has found.
LikeLike
I have written posts on the content of the Alexander-Murray draft up to page 428 (out of 601). Links to my four previous posts can be found in this one, my fifth, focused on Title V– charters:
LikeLike