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The Daily Signal
School Choice
Wins, Common Core Loses in Election 2014
Lindsey Burke
November 05, 2014
Photo: Getty Images
Last night’s election results have seismic implications for education
policy at both the state and federal levels. Voters sent a message that
school choice and local control are important to them.
School Choice Wins Big
Charlie Crist, running as a Democrat, lost his election bid for Florida
governor to incumbent Republican Rick Scott. Crist supported the
state’s teachers’ union and the Florida School Boards Association’s
campaign , to stop Florida’s tuition tax credit scholarship program.
The program, which enables nearly 69,000 low-income children to attend
a school of choice, is the nation’s largest choice program.
David Figlio of Northwestern University, who has evaluated the
scholarship program on an annual basis for the state, found that
“scholarship students are by and large the ones who struggled the most
at the public schools they left behind, but that they are now, on
average, making the same academic gains as students of all income
levels nationally.”
Scott’s victory is a victory for supporters of school choice in the
Sunshine State.
Similarly, in Wisconsin, Republican Scott Walker won his re-election
bid for governor running, in part, on a platform of expanding school
choice. His goals were in sharp contrast to that of challenger Mary
Burke, who opposed school choice. It also appears Wisconsin voters
approve of Walker’s efforts over the years to limiting collective
bargaining for public employees and give teachers a choice in whether
they join a union.
There also are more school choice supporters in state legislatures in
places such as Tennessee and also Nevada, where Republicans took
control of the state senate and house for the first time in decades. As
the Reno Gazette Journal reported:
“Some legislation that was not seriously considered by a Democratic
majority—like construction defects, private-school vouchers, ending
prevailing wage standards on public building contracts and reforms to
the state’s Public Employee Retirement System—would probably be
considered.”
In Illinois, school choice also was a major plank in the platform of
Bruce Rauner, the Republican who upset Pat Quinn in the state’s
gubernatorial race. Rauner is interested in establishing innovative
education savings accounts.
Common Core Widely Rejected
Voters resoundingly sided with candidates who both rejected Common Core
national standards and tests and promised to restore state and local
control of education.
Two races for state superintendent were particularly notable in this
regard: In Arizona, Diane Douglas, who ran explicitly on an anti-Common
Core platform, appears to have clinched the position. As Politico
noted, “Her victory would be a huge win for the anti-Common Core
movement.”
Richard Woods, who will become Georgia’s new state superintendent, also
campaigned on an anti-Common Core platform and has pledged to work to
create Georgia-based curriculum standards.
And in South Carolina, which withdrew from Common Core earlier this
year and already has planned to write its own standards, Molly
Spearman, an anti-Common Core candidate, won her bid for state
superintendent.
The potential for Arizona and Georgia to reject Common Core and forge a
new path forward is particularly notable.
The Arizona Republic acknowledged that “voters were voicing their
opposition to Common Core standards, [Douglas’] key issue in the
campaign.” And Doug Ducey, who was elected governor of Arizona
yesterday, has said the state can do better than federally funded
standards, which should not be imposed from the top down.
Momentum against Common Core has been mounting. Already this year, four
states—Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana—withdrew from
the national standards and tests, and more than a dozen others either
have exited or downgraded their involvement with the assessment
component.
New Opportunities for Federal Policy
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., will take the helm of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and is likely to work to
reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Although Congress should pursue
policies that would allow states to completely opt out of No Child Left
Behind, as the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success, or APLUS Act,
does, a potential reauthorization of NCLB would provide an opportunity
to move the nation’s largest K-12 education law in a more
student-centered direction.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., already has introduced the CHOICE Act, which
would allow states to have Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
funds follow children to the private schools of their parents’ choice.
Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., has introduced a companion measure in the
House. A similar approach to Title I funding for low-income school
districts also has been advanced in the House by Rep. Luke Messer,
R-Ind.
Options such as allowing Title I portability—letting the money follow
students in low-income schools to schools of choice—would be an
important component of any potential No Child reauthorization, and IDEA
portability is something Congress could tackle separately.
Finally, Congress now has the opportunity to actually address the
college cost crisis through reforms to accreditation. This is one of
the biggest opportunities conservatives have to advance
transformational education policy in the coming year.
The Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act—or HERO Act— introduced
by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., would empower
states to allow any entity to credential courses, which could pave the
way for a more flexible college experience for students and make
possible a dramatic reduction in college costs.
The proposal would allow states to establish flexible accreditation
models that would infuse a level of customization in higher education
not possible under the existing accreditation system.
Accreditation reform is long overdue. By enabling states to take the
lead on accreditation, the HERO Act creates a promising way to drive
down costs and increase customization and opportunity in higher
education.
Read this article and others with links at The Daily Signal
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