News

Education Week | Andrew Ujifusa | 8/31/16 –

After months of criticism from Republican lawmakers, state chiefs, and teachers’ unions on its approach to spending rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act, the U.S. Department of Education Wednesday released a new proposal that appears to give districts and states some additional flexibility when it comes to ensuring federal funds for low-income students don’t replace state and local dollars.

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Fox News | Bill Bennett | 7.28.16

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention this week, party leaders recently released the official Democratic policy platform. Not surprisingly, when it comes to education—an issue that has long been considered a mainstay of the Left—the agenda bends to teachers’ unions and other interest groups at odds with meaningful education reforms.

Americans deserve better, and they can do better. The 2016 election cycle, coupled with the overdue reforms delivered in the Every Student Succeeds Act, presents an opportunity for conservatives to re-stake the Republican Party as the champion of prudent and pragmatic education policy. And we can do so by articulating positions with a proven track-record of success: Greater local control, parental choice, high academic standards and aligned assessments, and honest frameworks for measuring student development and keeping teacher, principals, and districts accountable.

Already, momentum is in our favor. In December, the Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law with broad bipartisan support. The law forever ends No Child Left Behind and marks a historic return of control over education issues to state and local authorities—from classroom expectations to funding to accountability measures and beyond. The law has been heralded as a “huge win for conservatives,” but to ensure these reforms translate to tangible results will require conservative leaders to offer solutions, especially at the local level.

This week I was proud to join several Republican leaders from across the country to launch Conservative Leaders for Education. Comprised of conservative-minded state lawmakers and education policy makers, the coalition is committed to advocating principled policy as states begin to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act.

At the same time, the organization will serve as a clearinghouse of best practices, where educators, policymakers and the public can share ideas and contribute to a constructive policy discussion.

The formation of Conservative Leaders for Education comes at a pivotal time. Over the past thirty years the United States has gradually ceded control of education to a centralized, big government. Faced with rigid mandates from Washington, policymakers often inflated performance measures by systematically lowering the bar for schools. As a result, many students were often told they were on track to graduate high school prepared for college or a career, when in fact they were not.

That reality has fueled the remediation crisis on college campuses. Today, more than 50 percent of first-time students at community colleges and nearly 20 percent of those entering four-year institutions need remediation to learn skills they should have mastered in high school. About four in 10 students who take remedial coursework will never complete a degree. And it’s not just at-risk students who take a hit; 45 percent of students who place into remediation come from middle- and high-income families.

While Washington’s role in education has grown, so too has special interest groups’ influence on policy development. Over the past several decades teachers’ unions have steadily increased lobbying efforts, which have roundly opposed any mention of accountability. Out of those campaigns underperforming teachers have found themselves comfortably immune from answering to student outcomes, while the public has received less actionable information about how well their kids are doing.

It is time we push past old education models which put the wellbeing of adults (unions, administrators, teachers, etc…) ahead of students. The Every Student Succeeds Act has sown the groundwork for conservative leaders to stand up for the principles and policies that will leave a meaningful and lasting footprint. And with record levels of Republican control at the state level, right now we have a rare opportunity to cement local control over education, school choice, honest accountability and high-level content in our schools and classrooms.

Those goals won’t be easily won. Unions and entrenched special interests will continue to unilaterally oppose measures that require them to answer to student performance and the effectiveness of schools. Many have already called on the U.S. Department of Education to regulate implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, even though many proposals violate the intention of the law. If conservatives are hesitant to take the lead, liberals will.

Fortunately, there are leaders within the Republican Party to carry this banner. Governor Mike Pence, who was recently tapped as the vice presidential nominee, has achieved remarkable success expanding school choice in Indiana, which now boasts one of the largest voucher programs in the country. Just as commendable are the citizen advocates, like those participating in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference this week, who demand education be accountable to those closest to it.

The Every Student Succeeds Act marks a unique devolution of the federal overreach into education. For the first time in decades, states will have nearly full autonomy over, and responsibility for, the outcomes of their students. I urge conservative leaders, parents and educators to join us in advancing principled policies that will ensure this moment produces the type of education systems that will equip our young people to lead.

William J. Bennett is a former U.S. Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan and host of America Strong: The Bill Bennett Podcast.

Education Week | July 26th | Andrew Ujifusa

A new education policy group led by former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett wants to ensure that state Republican lawmakers stick to conservative principles as they implement the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Conservative Leaders for Education aims to promote school choice, local control, “transparent” and “timely” accountability, and “high academic standards” chosen by states as they shift to ESSA, the new federal education law passed last year. The idea behind the group is to push those principles in statehouses, but also to have state lawmakers share specific policy ideas to match.

“NCLB is dead. We urge states to seize the day. Republicans need to step up,” Bennett said in a phone interview, referring to the previous iteration of federal education law, the No Child Left Behind Act. “I’ve been complaining, worrying, wondering out loud, frustrated about education as a conservative. Democrats act as if they own it, and in many ways, they have owned it.”

We also got Bennett—the new group’s chairman, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s education secretary from 1985 to 1988—to discuss his dealings with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on education. More on that below.

Conservative Leaders for Education’s membership is made up of state lawmakers who chair education committees in eight states—Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin—and it will seek to add new state lawmakers in the future. (All of those states, except Colorado, have Republican governors.)

Right now, Republicans control 30 state legislatures and 31 governorships, and they have unified control of 22 states. The GOP has held sway over the majority of states since the 2010 elections, but Bennett said that up until ESSA, they didn’t have the freedom to create as much education policy as they might have wished. ESSA changes that, he said.

Conservative Leaders for Education will be particularly helpful for state lawmakers who have control over K-12 policy, but aren’t necessarily veterans of education policy and political battles, said Michigan GOP Rep. Amanda Price, the chairwoman of her chamber’s education panel and a member of the new group’s steering committee.

“I think it’s going to be a unique and useful resource for us,” Price, who’s been chairwoman of her chamber’s K-12 committee for about 18 months, said in a phone interview.

Unions, Choice, and Accountability

Bennett is particularly concerned that the two national teachers’ unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, will exert more influence than Republican K-12 leaders as states and districts begin the shift to ESSA.

I asked the about the fact that the AFT and NEA were closely involved with the creation and passage of ESSA, and that the NEA even gave ESSA architect Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an award last month. Bennett responded that while that may be true, he’s already seeing evidence that the unions are pushing for soft and fuzzy “subjective” accountability provisions that fly in the face of the new group’s principles.

And he cited AFT President Randi Weingarten’s attack on testing during her remarks at the Democratic National Committee on Monday.

“They’re happy to get this at the local level, they think they’re stronger at the local level,” Bennett said of the unions. “That’s why I think they’re giving at least two cheers for ESSA. … When you talk about choice, you know what the unions will say about that.”

But the new group doesn’t want state education departments in Republican-controlled states to be too prescriptive either—that goes against what ESSA should accomplish, said Kentucky Sen. Mike Wilson, the chairman of his chamber’s education committee, who is also on the new group’s steering committee.

“It stifles creativity and innovation that we know really happens at the local level,” Wilson said.

For his own part, Wilson said he’s been pushing for legislation to allow charter schools in Kentucky. He said his bill is in sync with ESSA because it would require Bluegrass State charter schools to be held to the same standard as traditional public schools.

One area where Wilson isn’t a huge fan of recent developments around ESSA? The requirement in draft ESSA accountability rules for a “single, summative rating” for schools that might mask specific issues in specific schools, he said. He thinks “dashboard” accountability can be more helpful. (His state’s schools chief, Stephen Pruitt, agrees.)

Those and other K-12 disagreements, like those in Michigan over teacher tenure and evaluations, show why the group is needed, Price said: “Education is not for the faint-hearted.”

Advising Trump

Apart from ESSA, I also asked Bennett, who now hosts a talk radio program, to flesh out comments he’s made previously that he’s been in contact with GOP nominee Donald Trump about education policy. Bennett, for example, has backed the Common Core State Standards, but Trump has denounced the standards, although without specifying why.

Bennett responded that he had one brief conversation with Trump, telling him he’d be happy to offer Trump advice about education. “He said, “Great, I’ll look forward to talking with you further,”” Bennett said, although he added that Trump hasn’t followed up.

However, Bennett said he has shared his ideas with conservative economists Stephen Moore and Lawrence Kudlow, who have been working with Trump’s campaign directly on policy. And Bennett noted that he’s also personally shared his ideas with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, although he hasn’t seen anything come of that.

Fox News Online | July 28, 2016 | William Bennett

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention this week, party leaders recently released the official Democratic policy platform. Not surprisingly, when it comes to education—an issue that has long been considered a mainstay of the Left—the agenda bends to teachers’ unions and other interest groups at odds with meaningful education reforms.

Americans deserve better, and they can do better. The 2016 election cycle, coupled with the overdue reforms delivered in the Every Student Succeeds Act, presents an opportunity for conservatives to re-stake the Republican Party as the champion of prudent and pragmatic education policy. And we can do so by articulating positions with a proven track-record of success: Greater local control, parental choice, high academic standards and aligned assessments, and honest frameworks for measuring student development and keeping teacher, principals, and districts accountable.

Already, momentum is in our favor. In December, the Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law with broad bipartisan support. The law forever ends No Child Left Behind and marks a historic return of control over education issues to state and local authorities—from classroom expectations to funding to accountability measures and beyond. The law has been heralded as a “huge win for conservatives,” but to ensure these reforms translate to tangible results will require conservative leaders to offer solutions, especially at the local level.

This week I was proud to join several Republican leaders from across the country to launch Conservative Leaders for Education. Comprised of conservative-minded state lawmakers and education policy makers, the coalition is committed to advocating principled policy as states begin to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act.

At the same time, the organization will serve as a clearinghouse of best practices, where educators, policymakers and the public can share ideas and contribute to a constructive policy discussion.

The formation of Conservative Leaders for Education comes at a pivotal time. Over the past thirty years the United States has gradually ceded control of education to a centralized, big government. Faced with rigid mandates from Washington, policymakers often inflated performance measures by systematically lowering the bar for schools. As a result, many students were often told they were on track to graduate high school prepared for college or a career, when in fact they were not.

That reality has fueled the remediation crisis on college campuses. Today, more than 50 percent of first-time students at community colleges and nearly 20 percent of those entering four-year institutions need remediation to learn skills they should have mastered in high school. About four in 10 students who take remedial coursework will never complete a degree. And it’s not just at-risk students who take a hit; 45 percent of students who place into remediation come from middle- and high-income families.

While Washington’s role in education has grown, so too has special interest groups’ influence on policy development. Over the past several decades teachers’ unions have steadily increased lobbying efforts, which have roundly opposed any mention of accountability. Out of those campaigns underperforming teachers have found themselves comfortably immune from answering to student outcomes, while the public has received less actionable information about how well their kids are doing.

It is time we push past old education models which put the wellbeing of adults (unions, administrators, teachers, etc…) ahead of students. The Every Student Succeeds Act has sown the groundwork for conservative leaders to stand up for the principles and policies that will leave a meaningful and lasting footprint. And with record levels of Republican control at the state level, right now we have a rare opportunity to cement local control over education, school choice, honest accountability and high-level content in our schools and classrooms.

Those goals won’t be easily won. Unions and entrenched special interests will continue to unilaterally oppose measures that require them to answer to student performance and the effectiveness of schools. Many have already called on the U.S. Department of Education to regulate implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, even though many proposals violate the intention of the law. If conservatives are hesitant to take the lead, liberals will.

Fortunately, there are leaders within the Republican Party to carry this banner. Governor Mike Pence, who was recently tapped as the vice presidential nominee, has achieved remarkable success expanding school choice in Indiana, which now boasts one of the largest voucher programs in the country. Just as commendable are the citizen advocates, like those participating in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference this week, who demand education be accountable to those closest to it.

The Every Student Succeeds Act marks a unique devolution of the federal overreach into education. For the first time in decades, states will have nearly full autonomy over, and responsibility for, the outcomes of their students. I urge conservative leaders, parents and educators to join us in advancing principled policies that will ensure this moment produces the type of education systems that will equip our young people to lead.

William J. Bennett is a former U.S. Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan and host of America Strong: The Bill Bennett Podcast.