Congress Should Work to Guarantee that All Students Have Access to a Quality Education, Witnesses Tell House Education Panel
WASHINGTON – As Congress looks to rewrite the nation’s education law, federal education policy must work to ensure states and school districts provide a high quality education for all students through accountability measures that promote equity, witnesses told the House Education and the Workforce Committee today.
“We must continue to support the simple idea that states, districts, and schools must improve each year and that they take action when students do not make the progress they should,” said Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the Committee. “We cannot afford to scale back our national and federal commitment to ensure all students are served well by their schools.”
Witnesses testified that states and districts must set high standards for every student. When those goals fail to be met, federal policy should provide incentives and resources that low-performing schools need to improve, they testified.
“Without federal support for disadvantaged students and accompanying accountability expectations, districts like Cleveland would have truly been left behind,” said Eric Gordon, CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
Despite calls to rewrite the nation’s education law in a bipartisan manner, last Congress House Republicans put forth highly partisan pieces of legislation that would turn the clock back decades on equity and accountability in American public education. Successfully enacting a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known as No Child Left Behind), however, will require genuine bipartisan negotiations. Rep. Miller said that a truly bipartisan effort is the only path for a real bill to get to the president’s desk and signed into law.
Witnesses testified that Congress must keep its civil rights and moral obligation to ensure all children have equal access to a high quality education. The historic federal role in education began as a way to ensure that all children have equal access to a high quality education, no matter their background. Accountability for federal taxpayer resources help to provide guidance on what students are learning and provides guidance to states and districts on how to improve.
“The federal parameters should both call for state accountability systems that commit to results, especially among historically disadvantaged students, and allow states to innovate on measures themselves,” said John White, State Superintendent of Education in Louisiana.
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