Duncan: 82 Percent of America’s Schools Could Fail to Meet AYP Next Year
On March 9, Education Secretary Duncan testified before the House Education and the Workforce Committee on the President’s education agenda, and told the panel that over 80 percent of schools—4 out of 5 schools—may not meet their accountability goals under No Child Left Behind next year, up from the current 37 percent now not meeting AYP. “No Child Left Behind is fundamentally broken, and we need to fix it this year,” he stated. “It has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair, flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk.”
President Calls on Congress to Reauthorize No Child Left Behind
Last week President Obama and Secretary Duncan visited a middle school in Arlington, Virginia, and once again called on Congress to reauthorize No Child Left Behind before the start of the 2011–2012 school year. The President’s priorities and key changes for NCLB include:
- A fair accountability system that shares responsibility for improvement and rewards excellence, and that is based on high standards and is informed by sophisticated assessments that measure individual student growth;
- A flexible system that empowers principals and teachers, and supports reform and innovation at the state and local level;
- And a system focused on the schools and the students most at risk that targets resources to persistently low-performing schools and ensures the most effective teachers serve students most in need.
- Read the President’s remarks
House and Senate Pass Another Short-Term Funding Measure for FY2011 Federal Programs
Also last week both the House and Senate passed another short term funding measure (Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government at the current FY2010 rates for three more weeks until April 8. This CR includes $6 billion in spending cuts, although no additional cuts to education programs were included. It prevented the government shut down on March 18 so that members of Congress can continue to work on the long term plan to keep the government operational until the end of the FY2011 (September 30,. 2011), a process that began in March 2010.
Vowing that “a government shutdown is not an option, period,” and that “short term funding measures are not the preferable way to fund the government” House Republicans vow to “continue our efforts to rein in spending and put a dent in our massive, $1.5 trillion deficit.” The two sides must come to an agreement on a long-term budget solution for FY2011 by April 8 or face the prospect of a government shutdown.