by Jim Brown
States have until Friday to submit preliminary plans for how they intend to comply with guidelines in President Bush's new federal education law.
Under the No-Child Left Behind Act, public schools that do not close the achievement gap between poor or minority students and their peers will be classified as “failing” institutions. It also requires schools that do not show improvement two years in a row to offer all its students the option of transferring to a non-failing school.
Derek Redelman is director of education policy at Hudson Institute. He says such accountability will bring more public attention to schools bearing the stigma of being labeled as “failing.” And pointing to Florida as an example, Redelman says it is “amazing” what schools will do when faced with the possibility of losing students because they fail.
“We’ve seen numerous situations at the state and local levels that when schools are faced with that very distinct label, they work very, very hard to do something differently,” Redelman says. “And probably even more motivating is the choice component.”
But he says the 108th Congress is not likely to reopen the new federal education law and reintroduce school vouchers. He says although Education Secretary Rod Paige has indicated he would like to explore some broader school-choice options — and there will probably be a lot of pressure to do so — the Republican majority feels there are more important issues on their plate.
“The U.S. Department of Education under the Bush Administration is still working very hard to implement the current law — so they may just choose to see what they can get done with the current law,” he says. “I would guess that it may be at least a year before we really see any major attempts to make additional changes.”
The education expert says in every other part of American society, if a service provider is failing, one can seek that service from somewhere else. But while that concept is common in society, he says it is “absolutely radical” in U.S. education.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
