New Column: It’s a Bad Idea to #TrustStates on Educational Equity

I’ve struggled to understand this year’s efforts to rewrite No Child Left Behind. Congress, usually so cacophonous, has seemed united on one, inexplicable objective: to give states and districts as much flexibility as possible when it comes to supporting America’s least privileged students.

No Child Left Behind is unpopular, sure. Its accountability mechanisms are unwieldy, yes.

But neither of those propositions are proof that states and districts are up to the task of fostering educational equity. Indeed, given their extremely checkered past on educational equity, and given the electoral pressures that state and local policymakers generally face when it comes to their education systems, why should we expect them to prioritize low-income or minority children?

Nonetheless, the march towards decentralization continues in Congress—and elsewhere. So I wrote another column about why this is such a worrisome trend.

When the federal government sends states money to, say, support English language learners’ linguistic and academic development, states send it to districts—where officials use it to buy oscillating fans. When the federal government asks state education agencies to improve how their long-failing districts serve ELLs, they often shirk their responsibilities. The upshot: it’s a fantasy to trust states (#TrustStates) to do right by their underserved students without federal pressure.

Near the end of its NCLB debate, the Senate considered an accountability amendment to try and put some of that pressure back. The amendment asked only that states commit to do something to intervene in schools when they chronically underperform their most vulnerable students—low-income and disabled kids, English Language Learners, students of color. It didn’t prescribe anything. It only asked them to make some sort of tangible change … and it went down in flames (just 43 votes in support, 42 Democrats and Ohio Republican Rob Portman).

Click here to read the whole column.“