Chris Reykdal, state superintendent of public instruction in Washington State, published this excellent letter to the Democratic candidates.
It overflows with wisdom and common sense.
An Open Letter to the Biden-Harris Ticket:
Mr. Vice President and Senator Harris, there is so much at stake with this year’s presidential election, including the very foundation of our country’s democracy – the future of our public education system. Led by Betsy DeVos and fueled by years of education privateers, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) has been an utter failure in advancing student learning, racial equity, and gender equity over the last four years. Under DeVos, the USDOE has jeopardized the financial future of too many young adults and actively worked against civil rights protections for our most vulnerable students.
As Washington State’s elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, I have worked with leaders across the state to build bipartisan coalitions to improve student achievement, but this same bipartisanship and student-centric approach have been elusive under the DeVos regime. It will take federal leadership working alongside state education policy leaders to move us past an inefficient and deficit-based system.
What follows are ten critical steps necessary for a Biden/Harris administration to build the foundation for a truly equitable and outstanding American education system.
1)
Grant a national waiver of all federally mandated tests required under the Every Student Succeeds Act until Congress has an opportunity to amend the law. This will save billions of dollars and allow us to refocus resources on assessments that illuminate student growth and learning, are delivered locally, and are aligned to requirements that are properly situated at the state or local level, not the federal government. The USDOE should review and approve each state’s education assessment framework, but it is time to put the evaluation of learning back in the classroom with meaningful standards, trained professionals, and culturally responsive instructional practices.
2)
Deliver legislation to Congress to scale up the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – a far more cost-effective method of actually determining the overall education progress of states with a real opportunity to finally understand performance differences between the states. This assessment is already funded and supported by the USDOE. It is inefficient and costly to have a federally funded assessment of student progress and have 50 states and territories maintaining their own costly assessments. This proposal would save billions from the current system, and with robust sample sizes, can identify critical supports needed to close opportunity gaps for students furthest from educational justice.
3)
Invest in the teaching profession by diversifying the workforce, including establishing high-quality residencies for teacher candidates and early career teachers, and providing funds for ongoing meaningful educator training. Additionally, building educator capacity should focus on integration of social-emotional learning into instruction, anti-racist and student-centered teaching practices, and authentic family engagement. It is past time to shift away from destructive federal policies that force schools and educators to dwell on student deficits, as defined by federally mandated tests, instead of lifting up the unique contribution of every learner and every educator.
4)
Immediately deliver a budget request to Congress that triples the federal budget for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from $13 billion to $40 billion. Congress and the USDOE have never fulfilled their obligation to this essential civil rights policy. One in seven students has a qualifying disability and these students deserve every accommodation necessary to fully engage in inclusive and least restrictive learning environments.
5)
By Executive Order, immediately suspend any federal dollars used to support school voucher programs. Require the USDOE to undertake a national examination of voucher systems, and require each state that uses vouchers to conduct third-party evaluation, with a USDOE review, that examines the effects of school voucher systems on school segregation, specifically the segregation of students of color and students with disabilities.
6)
Affirm that all federal funds are eligible to support DACA students and all migrant students. Make clear through executive order and USDOE rule that basic education rights for ALL students is a function of their residency, not their citizenship status. U.S. schools should focus on teaching and learning for ALL students, and the administration should ensure authorities overseeing immigration policy and citizenship status are upholding support of DACA and migrant students’ rights.
7)
Immediately reverse the USDOE’s recent rule change related to Title IX. This rule, promoted by Betsy DeVos, weakens protections for victims of sexual assault and retraumatizes them with forced cross-examinations by their perpetrators.
8)
Create a 10-year on-ramp with federal financial support to allow every school district in the United States to develop, implement, and evaluate dual-language programs for each of their students. The U.S. is linguistically diverse – this is an asset that should be celebrated, rather than viewed as a deficit! Every dollar spent on assessments for English language proficiency should be invested in high-quality dual language programs. We are losing a global battle for talent, and our students do not compete effectively in a global labor market because they lack bilingualism. Every student in the U.S. should learn two or more languages – as most of the world does – and this begins most effectively in early learning programs and early elementary school.
9)
Deliver an initial budget request to Congress of $100 billion to close the digital divide and invest in tribal lands by building out broadband connectivity in rural and remote communities. Make K-12 schools, indigenous communities, and reservation lands the highest priorities for “last mile” infrastructure. Our tribal communities are sovereign nations trapped by our failed national infrastructure. Tribal youth experience one of the largest opportunity gaps in the nation, and broadband can play a massive role in this powerful opportunity for equity.
10)
Provide every United States high school graduate two years of equivalent tuition to a public community or technical college through an education savings account. Students can use these funds for full associate degrees or industry recognized credentials, or use the funds as a universal baseline of financial assistance as they attend four-year colleges and universities.
Strengthening America’s education system should be the top priority for a Biden/Harris Administration. It does not mean expanding the control or scope of the USDOE, but rather putting the proper budget and policy levers in place that empower states and local school districts to close opportunity gaps, develop diverse pathways to graduation, and once again recognize the needs of individual students, employers, and the larger economy.
America’s future rests on its commitment to each and every learner in a high-quality accessible public education system that sees race, language, and individual student interests as strengths and assets upon which we develop the greatest and most innovative nation the world has ever known.
Chris Reykdal, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Sounds like a winner to me, but where is any mention of the “public” Charter School conundrum?
These are wonderful asks but that lack of charter accountability is a glaring loophole. Avoiding the “p” word (privatization) gives DFER & Dem candidates permission pretend shortcomings in the charter school model don’t exist.
This is great start to repair some of the damage of the past twenty years. If the federal government is going to mandate, it also needs to fund what they mandate. In addition, there should be a way send out someone to monitor or investigate infractions of the rules. Without consequences, some states will ignore federal mandates. Since my teaching position was partly Title 1, federally funded, I was subject to periodic reviews from the NYSED. Even though such review occurred only three times in over thirty years, it was a way to ensure that school districts were following the mandates.
After last night, a new second in command at Betsy’s Dept. of Ed. may be school choice advocate Rebecca Friedricks who InterChurch news describes as a “former Catholic public school teacher”. She ticks all of the boxes, pro-birth, describes unions as Marxist,
blathers about religious liberty (it’s really theocracy) and, posts caricatures of Kamala Harris on her Facebook page. She’s been interviewed at Daily Caller and various Catholic media describe her as “brave”.
Btw- I hope Reykdal understands, even if unwilling to admit, which highly active political apparatus is lobbying in the state and national capitols for vouchers.
How embarrassing for all Catholics.
Oh . . .I forgot, unlike all others from a myriad of different religious backgrounds, All Catholics automatically turn into virulent right-wing idiots. CBK
In 2020, theocracy was advanced in the following 4 ways
(1) Taxpayers, by SCOTUS verdict, were told to pay for religious schools.
(2) Religious employers were exempted from civil rights employment law.
(3) Religious social service agencies were given the right to discriminate against gay couples.
(4) A religious bishop claimed the right to tell his priests that they couldn’t vote in an American election. The legal advice came from the state’s religious conference.
SCOTUS opinion in the Kristin Biel case established that teachers, by classification have ministerial duties. Religious leaders may have won the precedent to tell teachers and other employees of their religious organizations not to vote or, how to vote. If the employees disobey, what legal grounds protect them from punishment?
People who are unwilling to research won’t find the litigants in the court cases, the signers of amicus briefs, the legal firms representing the parties nor the media reports that corroborate the advance of theocracy.
Suffice it to say that, at this point in time, Americans need not be warned against the state conferences and bishops of the BaHa’is faith,
which may explain why their members aren’t speaking so frequently at the RNC.
AOC successfully branded dealing with the climate crisis as a Green New Deal as a way to promote funding by the federal government. We have a systemic crisis in education, as well – our massive teacher shortage.
How about Democrats promote a Teacher New Deal, like the GI Bill that paid for college degrees- including advanced degrees for WWII Veterans? If the Dems committed to that we wouldn’t need the junk science from philanthropists like Eli Broad or Teach for America scams to plug the gaps with unprepared temps.
Great idea!
I LOVE AOC. She can connect the dots. Those “so-called public charter schools is an OXYMORON. The only thing public about them is that they TAKE $$$$$ from our Public Schools with no accountability whatsoever. It’s all just so sick.
Me: Charter schools are not public schools. KIPP schools are not public schools.
KIPP Parent: Yes they are too public schools! It says so on the KIPP website!
Ed Johnson Another example of the virus of Electorate Naivete . . . if it’s published somewhere, it must be true. CBK
an attitude which could also be describing a huge percent of citizen understanding about charters/vouchers: it says so on the website
“. . . we wouldn’t need the junk science from philanthropists like Eli Broad or Teach for America scams. . .”
Nah we don’t need their junk science American Public Education already has it’s fill of junk science–the standards and testing malpractice regime.
God, it is so frustrating that after 20 years of this malpractice regime many supposed educators on this site and around the country still adhere and implement that regime that harms ALL the students.
“Washington State Catholic Conference, The Public Policy Voice of the Bishops of Washington State….Send a message to our U.S. Senators to support the Alexander-Scott ‘School Choice Now Act’ “.
It’s up at OEN: https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Letter-to-Biden-and-Harris-in-General_News-Diane-Ravitch_Education_Public-Education_Public-Education-200825-847.html#comment772614
“Grant a national waiver of all federally mandated tests required under the Every Student Succeeds Act until Congress has an opportunity to amend the law. This will save billions of dollars and allow us to refocus resources on assessments that illuminate student growth and learning, are delivered locally, and are aligned to requirements that are properly situated at the state or local level, not the federal government. The USDOE should review and approve each state’s education assessment framework, but it is time to put the evaluation of learning back in the classroom with meaningful standards, trained professionals, and culturally responsive instructional practices.”
More adminimal speak from a true adminimal. Grant a waiver. . . Smmhhhhh duh! Come out and say it Reykdal, you believe the privateers’ and edudeformers’ mantra of measuring student achievement via the standards and testing malpractice regime. You just want a waiver. . . horse manure. When one starts with crap, in this case the invalid standards and testing malpractice regime, one can only end up with crap out the back end, in this case, trying to use invalid error filled data to make supposed education decisions. You’re bound to fail.
Until we break free from the nefarious standards and testing malpractice regime, well, we’ll continue to focus on the wrong damn things, things that harm all students.
“Deliver legislation to Congress to scale up the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – a far more cost-effective method of actually determining the overall education progress of states with a real opportunity to finally understand performance differences between the states.”
NAEP suffers all of the same onto-epistemological errors and falsehoods as all other standardized academic tests which render the usage of any of the results for anything completely bogus, nonsensical, a chimera, or in my plain country English bullshit.
Sad, indeed effin sad! But hey he’s WA’s chief education adminimal, why would I expect any different.
Diane In my dreamworld, I find myself thinking how nice it would be if Obama stepped up to self-critique his own earlier presidential policies where, I like to think, he was also a victim of the tsunami of propaganda AGAINST public schools and FOR inauthentic reformer movements. He trusted ill-thinking advisors where, if he’d given it any real Obama-type thought, he would not have supported such movements. Okay, . . . I’ll wake up now. CBK
Yes, it would be nice if Obama did that.
But again…
https://dianeravitch.net/2018/06/06/ed-johnson-an-open-letter-to-obama-about-race-to-the-top/
Which is why Biden must diverge from Obama on K-12 public education.
This time around ALL teachers MUST vote for the future of our profession and even more importantly for the future of our nation and I will include, the future of the world. Do NOT withhold voting as a protest as some did last time around with PROFOUND results.
GORDON: THIS TIME, we need the numbers. CBK
It has not been mentioned here, but the high-stakes accountability of NCLB and ESSA is a form of institutional racism. It is easier to see as economic discrimination in that school turnaround and less severe accountability consequences occur in low income areas. If you dig a bit deeper you will see that these are also red-lined zones from earlier bank lending high risk zones.
The linkage to minorities is that they are financially discriminated against. They live where they can afford to live, and others with low incomes likewise choose to live there. The strong linkage between low test scores and low income leads to a demoralizing reputation for the people in that area that reduces motivation to try harder.
This lowering of personal expectations is a traditional way to keep oppressed people and slaves from pushing back against suppression, and leads them to accept their lower status.
This high-stakes testing with harsh and unproductive accountability is institutional or systemic racism. It has just not yet been clearly identified as such.
I have a feeling that Harris will be helpful in leading Biden away from the mistakes Obama himself began to recognize in his last year….St. Louis has the worst newspaper I know of regarding bad education reporting…..and just as they did when she announced in January of 2019, when they refused to mention her for 23 days after her opening Sunday….and continued snide commentary after that……they refused to cover her Wednesday speech, and have carried three opinion pieces from others, continuing to degrade her, including a letter from an abortion is murder fanatic, and today….kathleen Parker, in a column supposedly about republican ghoulish clowns: I can’t recall a more-solemn Barack Obama, who exchanged his hope-and-change template for one of direness and urgency.
In another role reversal, Kamala Harris traded her more-familiar prosecutorial assassin persona for the private face of “Momala,” the brightly smiling daughter of an immigrant mother and stepmom whose daughter testified to her family-focused bona fides. Harris’ dazzling smile betrayed an almost girlish giddiness at what seemed to be her delight in her own presence at this unprecedented intersection of aspiration and history.
Down the page, Gerson referred to her referring to Trump as a sexual predator, not being brave enough to mention her name.
My reward for diligent reporting of the letter writer who trashed Harris, while the letter writer found agreement with someone named…David Daleiden slams Kamala Harris VP nomination: ‘Everyone should be afraid’
I was rewarded for my reporting about the abortion is murder fanatics…..Your comment on Letter: Kamala Harris talks justice but excludes the unborn has been deleted with penalty by a site administrator at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The comment was deemed inappropriate and inconsistent with this site’s image. Your World Table score will be penalized accordingly. I suspect a white male, who loves charter schools…….hope Kamala does well in her role…..whether it is momola for her family, or leaving republicans grasping for words. I get a lot of requests to just stop reading the post dispatch. I tell them I am the bodyguard of Missouri civilization….have high hopes that an explosion in management of kmox might be in the offing……pretty sure they will hold on to the Cardinals. Not quite as sure about Limbaugh.
I feel kind of bad for posting something that rambling and incoherent in spots…the actual quote of Parker began with “I can’t recall” (about Obama…and ends with the sentence with Kamala’s girlish giddiness. Gerson is an op-ed writer for the Washington Post……everyone should be afraid….of the david daleiden himself….google him.