JM Community Briefing ONE

How Does ESEA Reauthorization Affect Communities of Color?

Part One:

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Agenda 1. What Happened Last Tuesday? 2. ESEA and Race 3. The Obama Proposal 4. The Republican Model 5. What Does it All Mean? 6. Question & Answer

Presenter: Jack Loveridge Policy Analyst at Justice Matters

2008: A Democratic Wave

Community Briefing Series

Nov. 2, 2010: The Tide Rolls Back


The Results • Republicans gain 64 seats in House • Senate now 53-47 in Democratic Favor • Moderate Democrats Sent Home • GOP House gains greater than 1994, 1974


An Older, Whiter Electorate


New Leadership

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to be replaced by John Boehner (R-OH)

• Pelosi will try to stay on as House minority leader

• Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) will likely become House majority leader

• The 112th Congress will assume office in early January 2011

Boehner, Cantor opposing Health Care legislation


Profile: John Boehner

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

• Ohio Republican currently serving as House minority leader has 16 years of Congressional experience

• Ranking member of House Education and Labor Committee that approved No Child Left Behind

• Deep interest in education policy, though his career background is in business.

• Post-election quote: “We have real work to do, and this is not a time for celebration.”


The Education Challenge

• The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the core of Federal public education policy

• Originally enacted in 1965, it must be reauthorized or revised by Congress every five years

• ESEA, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), is now four years overdue for reauthorization

• Many analysts think ESEA reauthorization is coming soon


The Process

Committee Hearings

Mark-Up

Committee Sends Bill to Full Chamber

Floor Vote

Reconcile Bills

President Vetoes or Signs into Law

Reauthorized ESEA Good for Five Years


Reauthorize What? • Signed in April 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson, the ESEA regulates K-12 public education

• Title I of the Act distributes Federal funds to schools with high percentages (40% or more) of low-income students

• Title III provides funding for language instruction for English-learners

• Title V provides money for parent engagement programs

• The law also contains provisions for teacher training, libraries, and nutrition


A Civil Rights Legacy

ESEA would not have been possible without the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights movement could not have accomplished its ends without the backing of ESEA

• Coming just months after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ESEA was informed by the Civil Rights Movement

• Objective to compel Southern states to desegregate schools by withholding Federal funding

• All states complied


Government’s Role

Since the opening of the Department of Education (pictured), conservatives from

George Wallace to Rand Paul have pushed for its closure as evidence of big government

• Along with ESEA, the Department of Education was founded in 1965

• Before this, the Federal role in public education was virtually nonexistent

• School conditions and student achievement varied widely across the country

• For low-income communities of color, ESEA fought decades of racist policies supported by state governments


Leaving No Child Behind • On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Behind Act (NCLB) into law with bipartisan support from Congress

• Modified and rebranded, the core of the legislation is a reauthorized version of the 1965 ESEA

• Emphasis on standards, accountability, and school choice

• But NCLB’s standardized tests and punitive approaches have pushed-out students of color and masked low student performance


A Reform Frenzy • With the new administration, a broad education reform discussion has begun

• From Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey, the news has been packed with big names pushing a fix to NCLB

• The film Waiting for Superman marked a peak in the media attention in September

• However, real voices coming directly from communities of color have been missing in the public reform dialogue


A Blueprint for Reform

• Released by Department of Education released a document in March 2010, the Blueprint outline Obama Administration’s plans for ESEA reauthorization

Four core proposals included:

1) Emphasizing competitive grants over guaranteed formula funding

2) Broadening student assessments, but keeping standardized testing central

3) Encouraging the creation of more charter schools

4) Closing or restructuring struggling schools through “Turnaround Models”


Absent Community Voice • The Blueprint approached students of color as the problem in our public school systems

• Focus on fixing “low-performing” rather than investigating structural problems

• Lacking meaningful parent engagement programs to welcome families into schools and give them a role in school decision-making


Focus on Competition “The countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow.” -President Obama

• Competition on all levels to promote student achievement and school improvement

• No real emphasis on cooperation between communities, students, and educators

• Schools serving low-income communities of color at automatic disadvantage in market approach


Then came the elections…


House of Representatives

239 Republicans 188 Democrats

218 need to pass

Senate

53 Democratic Caucus 47 Republicans

51 for pass 60 to avoid filibuster

From Miller to Kline

Rep. George Miller (D-CA)

Rep. John Kline (R-MN)

• Democrat from Northern California has 35 years of Congressional experience

• Chaired Education and Labor Committee since 2006 and in early 2000s

• Headed committee that authored No Child Left Behind

With the new Republican majority comes a change in 49-member House

Education and Labor Committee


Profile: John Kline

John Kline 2010 Campaign Photo

• Conservative Republican from Minnesota with eight years of Congressional experience

• Career as a defense strategist and marine

• Comparatively new to education

• No chairmanship experience

• Post-election quote: “There is an agreement in the Republican conference that this [health care] law is bad policy, and we need to fix it.”


The Republican Model

“[R]eform that restores local control, empowers parents, lets teachers teach, and

protects taxpayers.”

Rep. John Kline (R-MN) November 4, 2010


1. Reasserting Local Control

Federal moves toward desegregation prompt Arkansas governor to close schools in 1957

• John Kline called the Federal role in education a “very large intrusion”

• Local control is a very slippery slope

• Federal government involved in education for important reasons


What it means for communities of color:

Reduces the role of the Federal government and allows market forces to decide educational quality

2. Empowering Parents • Thinly-veiled code for “school choice” or more charter schools and vouchers

• Charters, private schools, and vouchers used as “Trojan horses” to draw resources away from the public system

• Republicans rarely fund parent engagement programs

D.C. parents rally for school choice in summer 2009


What it means for communities of color: Choice alone is not parental engagement. The choice between a broken public school and a charter is no choice at all

3. Letting Teachers Teach

• Sounds good, but what does it mean exactly?

• It links to the local control issue

• Department of Education makes the paperwork so it’s the problem

• But teach what, exactly?



Reduces already modest Federal role

4. Protecting Taxpayers

Tea Partiers rally in Wisconsin

• Funding cuts to keep taxes on highest income brackets low

• Conservatives uncomfortable with the Title I formula funding rules

• Balancing act for the rural politicians



Historically guaranteed funding still at risk

What’s next?

Three Scenarios:

1. President, Senate, and House compromise

2. Congress passes smaller “patch” legislation

3. Government finds no consensus in 2011


What now?

Nothing is Inevitable:

Urgency Remains:

Back to the Drawing Board:

Although the national conversation will continue, Congress will need time to regroup in early 2011.

Reauthorization does not have to happen a given way or even happen at all. Either way, the policy approaches from both sides will be heavily altered.

The old policies of NCLB are still in place and they are still hurting communities of color. Now is the time to build an active and informed community-led discussion.


Question & Answer

Justice Matters’ mission is to bring about racially just schools that develop and promote education policy rooted in community vision.

Visit us online at:

www.justicematters.org www.justicemattersblog.blogspot.com

Jack Loveridge Policy Analyst

[email protected]