Five Questions For …. Education Week’s Alyson Klein On Waivers, School Choice, and What’s Next for Federal Policy
Alyson Klein (along with Michele McNeil) authors Education Week’s
influential Politics K-12
blog. She spoke with EWA about what the outcomes of Tuesday’s
election will mean for education policy at the state and federal
level.
1. One of the problems with creating long-term education
reform is that it’s often interrupted. What will four more years
mean for initiatives like Race To The Top, School Improvement
Grants, and the Investing In Innovation (i3)
program?
Presumably, assuming that Congress continues to delay the ESEA
reauthorization, it will help those federal initiatives get even
more traction at the state level. Now, President Obama can be
more stringent if he wants to be. Consider Race To The Top: The
Education Department has already threatened to withhold money
from Hawaii and Georgia for not following through on what was
pledged.
2. Latino voters were a major factor in this election.
What does that mean for the president’s education
polices?
The Dream Act is certainly back on the radar. I can’t imagine
that a Democrat-controlled Senate won’t attempt to pass it. The
president will continue the deferrals (Deferred Action for Early
Arrivals) and push for comprehensive immigration reform even
though it doesn’t have a great chance in the House. The National
Council of La Raza has been really concerned that kids of color
are being given watered-down standards and expectations under the
state waivers. Obama will be under additional pressure to make
sure schools aren’t ignoring students aren’t overlooked . There’s
a sense that the president owes it to the Latino community to be
aggressive in addressing these concerns.
3. How would you rate the night for education reform in
general?
It was a tough night for Republican education reformers, who saw
ballot initiatives go down in Idaho, and Tony
Bennett lost
his stewardship of Indiana’s schools. It was probably a good
night for school choice, given
what happened in Georgia and Washington state. We can
probably say people are in favor of choice and charters, even if
they were skeptical of vouchers.
4. What was the biggest surprise for you in the
election?
Bennett’s ouster in Indiana was the biggest surprise for me.
There are areas where teachers unions and Republicans have a lot
in common – they’re skeptical of the Common Core State Standards,
and too much federal involvement in local education. But you
rarely see the extreme flanks of those two groups come together
to get something done. That’s what happened in Indiana. Bennett
was persona non grata with conservatives and with teachers on
issues of teacher quality, and vouchers. That’s what cost him his
job.
5. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has told you
in a number of interviews he intends to stay on for the second
term. What is the potential impact of his continued tenure, and
that level of consistency in leadership?
First of all, Duncan has made it clear he supports things
teachers unions generally don’t support, including pay for
performance and charter schools. But the NEA doubled the number
of volunteers they had out in the swing states, and they did so
hoping they could have more of a seat at the table for Obama’s
education policy. The fact that Duncan is staying on means the
unions won’t get everything they want.
I don’t see Duncan reversing direction from anything he put in
place during the first term. His staying on also means the person
who crafted the NCLB waivers and Race To The Top is going to
oversee its further implementation. So, he has ownership. If
there are flaws in the policies going forward, there’s more room
for quick course corrections than if we had to wait for a new
secretary.
This post originally appeared on EWA’s now-defunct online
community, EdMedia Commons. Old content from EMC will appear in
the Ed Beat archives.