Education stakeholders in Georgia and Tennessee say Washington needs to loosen its grip on local education. They agree with lawmakers, saying that the George W. Bush-era No Child Left Behind legislation has been desperately in need of repair for years.
Support for Every Child Achieves, a bipartisan bill being debated now on the Senate floor, is widespread. But some are concerned that the lessening of federal oversight will open the door to increased inequality in education, and dread yet another wave of changes in academic standards.
Every Child Achieves is a bill brought to the Senate floor this week by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. This legislation is intended to remedy No Child Left Behind and the waivers the Obama administration began issuing in 2012, granting states' exemption from specific requirements of the law in exchange for more rigorous academic standards and national oversight - most notably ending Common Core.
"It is impossible to run all the schools in America from Washington," Alexander previously told the Times Free Press. " [these waivers] had the affect of creating a national school."
On Wednesday, the House narrowly passed a Republican-led rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law by a 218-213 vote. The vote came just five months after GOP leaders pulled a similar bill just before the scheduled vote. The Senate is expected to vote on Every Child Achieves within the week.
If Congress votes the House or Senate's proposed legislation into law it will place all decision-making power regarding education in the hands of state officials, creating an absence of national oversight and control.
Alexander, chairman of the Education Committee, says the important measurements of annual testing and teacher evaluations will be mandated to continue, but what a state does with those results is up to its leadership in Every Child Achieves.
Hamilton County assistant superintendent over education and leadership Robert Sharpe said, "Decisions impacting instruction and assessment should be made as close to the classroom as possible."
He said that overhauling No Child Left Behind is overdue, but that he wants to see a menu of flexible student testing options for states and districts added to the legislation.
Teresa Wasson, director of communications for the State Collaborative for Reforming Education, said it is still hard to project the exact direction the bill will take, but she believes that Tennessee policymakers are making progress to increase academic achievement statewide.
"However, we certainly recognize that might not be true in every state," Wasson said. " [If made into law], it would put more responsibility onto stakeholders, education advocates and parents to make sure they are letting their views be known."
Wasson hopes Tennessee will choose to continue many of the things it is already doing, even if the new law is passed.
"No Child Left Behind highlighted achievement gaps and focused in on disadvantaged students, and by putting some focus on that I think there have been greater efforts to address it," she said.
The goal of the state should be better and fewer assessments, and this bill could allow for some flexibility on this, Wasson said. But there is value in consistency in standards from state to state in preparing students for graduation, which may be lost by this bill, she added.
Justin Pauly, director of communications for the Georgia School Superintendents Association, said moving the decision-making power to the local level is the best way to make decisions about kids.
He said the locally elected school board and the superintendent it hires will be able to make the decisions under Every Child Achieves, and that citizens gain more control over education because they have the opportunity to elect th0se officials.
Nationally, groups like the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which includes the NAACP and the Children's Defense Fund, have been outspoken about the lack of accountability and room for increased inequality Every Child Achieves could allow.
"The [secretary of education] must have sufficient authority to ensure the law is appropriately implemented and the most vulnerable students are protected," the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote in a public letter.
The Chattanooga branch of the NAACP, along with the Georgia and Tennessee divisions, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Hamilton County school board member Jonathan Welch said that, if passed, this bill could provide an opportunity for the state to "step up."
He said he is concerned about the constantly changing set of standards schools are required to meet, and does not want to see another temporary change in policy.
"Just when we start to see some progress they move the goal posts again," Welch said. "As soon as we think there is a target and we start to move toward it the target seems to move."
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592.