October 2015-The House and Senate again pass a short-term extension of the highway bill, this one running through November 20, 2015.
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Republicans and other critics accused the administration of overreach.
But it would dramatically lessen the federal role in education policy by returning to states the power to determine whether and how to use those tests to assess schools, teachers and students.
A key Democrat on the conference committee, Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, said the proposal “ensures that when achievement gaps are found, meaningful action will be taken to intervene and support the needs of students”.
“I think everybody understands the importance of this”, he said.
Although Democrats and Republicans agreed that the law – passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2001 – had become an albatross on schools that led to overly punitive stakes for standardized testing, Congress has for eight years been unable to come to an accord on replacing it. It does not allow Title 1 funds to “follow the student” when a low-income student transfers to a different school.
Instead, the compromise invoice would permit for a small pilot program that might let federal cash transfer with college students in a few faculty districts. Now, those dollars remain at the struggling schools.
The White House rushed chief of staff Denis McDonough and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to the Capitol early Thursday in an attempt to win over Democratic lawmakers. Both chambers have passed their own versions, and a conference committee has been established to work out the differences between the two.
-“Today’s conference committee vote is another encouraging step in the process to update the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and on behalf of state chiefs, I applaud the work of the committee”, said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. It now goes to President Obama, who has indicated he’ll sign the extension via autopen while traveling to Malaysia. “The framework maintains annual assessments and gives states additional flexibility in how to design better accountability systems”. It’s coming up for a vote this afternoon in the House.
I hope every single one of those 47 Democrats who voted with Republicans on the anti-refugee bill, are voted out of office. Both bills would combine environmental impact statements and records of decision into a single document, thereby limiting public comment on federally permitted infrastructure.
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Under the deal endorsed Thursday, the federal government would still require that states test students annually in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school, and publicly report the scores according to race, income, ethnicity, disability and whether students are English-language learners.
