Rep. Kline’s Education Priorities

The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced their leadership this week, tapping Rep. John Kline (R-MN) as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. What this means for early education programs is yet to be seen, though there is potential for more funding for young children with special needs.

Rep. Kline has called for an emphasis on “local control” in education issues, but details are hazy on exactly what that means. (The concept, for example, can take on different meanings for different people, as made clear by the varying reactions of commentators on a recent National Journal discussion about Kline and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.)  He is no fan of teacher unions and supports parent-choice models, including the “parent trigger,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which enables parents – if organized to represent the majority – to force changes or close a failing school. (Parents used the trigger in an attempt to improve McKinley Elementary School in the Compton Unified School District in California.)

It is not clear where Rep. Kline stands when it comes to improving the quality of early education programs and making them more accessible to working families. Nor is there any word on how to better train teachers in the early grades who work with young children, whether full-day kindergarten deserves the same status as full-day first grade or second grade, or how to use early childhood data to make better decisions on how to best meet children’s educational needs from their very earliest years. Many of these are issues that Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the outgoing chairman of the committee, championed with a strong voice.  He and his staff led work in the creation of the Early Learning Challenge Fund that was passed by the House last year but did not make it through the Senate.

Among early childhood advocates, however, there is some reason to be optimistic about Rep. Kline’s leadership. As Ed Week reported, he wants to increase funding for special education, which he called a “huge unfunded mandate … that we ought to address.” Many of the pre-k programs within public schools are special ed programs – and a subset of them are special ed programs that are open to “typically developing” children as well. Those inclusive classrooms provide greater accessibility to pre-k programs for all families searching for high-quality, affordable programs.

How will Rep. Kline square this desire for more special-ed funding with pledges to reduce the deficit and cut discretionary spending in federal agencies? Does he see potential for reauthorizing ESEA next year? These are among many questions that Early Ed Watch and the broader education community will be asking in the coming months. Stay tuned.