Bill Lee: “tomorrow the Senate will vote on the Every Student Succeeds Act--a bill that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary…”

“tomorrow the Senate will vote on the Every Student Succeeds Act--a bill that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, which is the legislation governing Federal K-12 education policy. By all accounts, the Senate is expected to pass this bill with a bipartisan majority, and President Obama is of course expected to sign it into law. This would be a serious setback for America's schools, teachers, and students, one that will have sweeping consequences for decades to come, because when we get educational policy wrong, as this bill does and as we have done at the Federal level for so many years, it affects not just the quality of education students receive as children but the quality of life that will be available to them as adults down the road. The problem is not just the particular provisions of this particular bill but the dysfunctional and outdated model of education on which it is built--a model that concentrates authority over education decisions in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, instead of in the hands of parents, teachers, principals, local school boards, and State officials. For the past 50 years, this model has defined and guided the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the bill before us today is unfortunately no exception.…”