The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law at the end of 2015 and is a major overhaul of education policy in the United States. In this episode, find out how the new law will likely lead to a massive transfer of taxpayer money into private pockets.
Executive Producer: David Waldstein
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S. 1177: Every Student Succeeds Act
Bill Highlights
Section 4: Transition
- Ends previous funding programs on September 30,2016
- The Statewide Accountability System created by this law will be effective starting in the 2017-2018 school year
Title I: Improving basic programs operated by State and local educational agencies
Funding
- Provides an average of $15.5 billion per year for 2017-2020
- At least 7% of the funding must be reserved by States and granted to local educational agencies, who will be allowed to hire for-profit organizations for “improvement activities”
- States are allowed, but not required, to reserve 3% of their funding for direct student services, which includes AP courses, college courses, transportation to another school as needed, and tutoring.
- 50 local educational agencies will be allowed to create their own per-pupil method of distributing funds
State Plans
- To receive funding, States must submit a peer-reviewed plan to be approved by the Secretary of Education.
- State plans will be available online for the public
- Plans will be required to include “challenging academic content standards” but the State won’t be required to submit their standards to the Secretary of Education.
- Academic standards are only required for mathematics, reading or language arts, and science.
- Alternate academic standards can be developed for students with disabilities.
Testing
- States will be required to test students in math, reading, and science and is allowed to test in any other subject.
- Math and reading tests are required each year from grades 3 through 8, and once in high school.
- Science tests will be required once during grades 3 through 5, once during grades 6 through 9, and once during grades 10 through 12.
- Results will be reported by race, ethnicity, wealth, disability, English proficiency status, gender, and migrant status.
- State and local educational agencies must include a policy that allows parents to opt their child out of mandated tests.
School Choice
- Students can choose to attend an another public school controlled by the “local education agency” and the local education agency is allowed to pay for student transportation, but there is a funding cap.
Secretary of Education’s Role
- The Secretary of Education is prohibited from intervening or adjusting State plans
- The Federal Government can’t force or encourage States to adopt Common Core standards.
- “No State shall be required to have academic standards approved or certified by the Federal Government in order to receive assistance under this Act.”
Accountability
- The State will publish a detailed annual report card on the State’s educational agency’s website.
Local Educational Agency Plans
- Local educational agencies can only get Federal funding if they have State-approved plans
Parents Right to Know
- Local educational agencies that receive Federal funds will have to provide parents with information about their kids’ teachers, including if the teacher has met State qualifications for the grade level and subject and if the teacher is teaching under emergency or provisional status.
- Parents will also be informed if a student has been taught for 4 or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who does not meet State certification for the grade level or subject.
- Parents must give written consent in order for their child to participate in any mental health assessment, except for in emergencies.
- Children can not be forced to take a prescription medication as a condition for attending a Federally funded school.
- Can be administered by for-profit providers
- Funds from Federal, State, and local grants can be consolidated and used to upgrade the entire educational program of schools where at least 40% of the children come from low income families.
- Schoolwide programs can be exempted by the Secretary of Education from regulations governing education grant programs.
- Activities can include mental health counseling, mentoring services, “specialized instructional support” services, college courses, activities for teachers, and preschool programs for children under 6 years old.
- High schools can use the money for dual enrollment of underperforming kids and can pay for teacher training, tuition and fees, books, “innovative delivery methods”, and transportation to and from the program.
- Can be administered by for-profit providers.
- Local agencies will decide the criteria that determines which kids are eligible
- Funds can pay for before and after school programs, summer programs, “activities”, academic courses, and this law added “family support and engagement services”.
Children Enrolled in Private Schools
- Upon request, local educational agencies need to provide children in private schools with services including testing, counseling, mentoring, one-on-one tutoring, dual or concurrent enrollment, radio equipment, televisions, computer equipment, and other tech to “address their needs”
- “Educational services and other benefits for such private school children shall be equitable in comparison to services and other benefits or public school children…”
- An investigator will be employed to ensure equity for private school children and teachers
- A complaint and appeal process will be created for those who think the private school kids are not getting their share of money.
- Private school children’s share of funds will be based on the number of low income children who attend private schools.
- Funds to private school children can be provided directly or through an “entity” or “third party contractor”.
- State educational agencies must provide services to private school children if the local agencies don’t, and they can do so by contracting with private organizations.
Title II: Preparing, training, and recruiting high-quality teachers, principals, or other school leaders
- Creates a public or non-profit teaching academy which will award certificates or degrees equivalent to Masters degrees.
- The Federal funding provided is a little under half a billion per year.
- Contracts can be given to for profit entities for teacher testing, training, technical assistance, program administration, and mentoring.
- For-profit entities can also be hired by local education agencies to develop and implement processes for hiring and paying teachers.
- Partnerships between schools and private mental health organizations may be formed.
- The Federal government is prohibited from oversight
Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program
- States, local educational agencies, and non-profit organizations will be given three year extendable grants to create and implement “performance based compensation systems” for teachers, principals and other school leaders in schools with at least 30% of students coming from low income families.
- Government agencies and charter schools and partner with for-profit entities
Civics Courses
- 12 grants will be awarded to create summer school courses for 50-300 teachers that will inform them how to teach American history and civics.
- 100-300 junior or senior year students will also get intensive civics courses
Title III: Language Instruction for English learners and immigrant students
Funding
- Between $756 million increasing to $885 million per year through 2020.
- Some grant money will go to “institutions of higher education or public or private entities” for a National professional development project that will train & certify teachers, and pay for tuition, fees, and books.
Process
- All students who may be English learners will be assessed within 30 days of enrolling in a new school.
- To determine how much money each State gets, data from the American Community Survey, conducted by the Department of Commerce will be used.
Title IV: 21st Century Schools
Funding
- $1.6 billion per year through 2020
- Grants will be awarded to States to increase student access to education on technology, computer science, music, arts, foreign languages, civics, geography, social studies, environmental education and other experiences that contribute to a well rounded education.
- Local education agencies need to apply to get the money
- Local education agencies are allowed to partner with private entities
Funding
Purpose
- Private entities are eligible for 5 year grants to operate Community Learning Centers for extra education programs.
- State applications will be deemed approved if the Secretary of Education takes no action within 120 days.
- Applying entities get to decide the purpose of the Community Learning Centers they will operate and must include that information in their application.
- Activities can include tutoring, mentoring, financial and environmental literacy programs, nutritional education, physical education, services for the disabled, after school English learning classes, cultural programs, technology education programs, library services, parenting skills programs, drug and violence prevention programs, computer science, and career readiness programs.
Purpose
- “To increase the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the United States”
- “To encourage States to provide support to charter schools for facilities financing in an amount more nearly commensurate to the amount States typically provide for traditional public schools”
Funding
- $270 million increasing to $300 million per year through 2020
- Five year grants will be awarded to open and expand charter schools
- The Secretary of Education is required to award at least three charter school grants per year and give out every penny allocated for the first two years.
- Priority will go to States that give charter schools the most, including funding for facilities, free or low cost use of public buildings, or first-in-line privileges for buying public school buildings.
- Taxpayer funded grants will pay for hiring and paying staff, buying supplies, training, equipment, and educational materials – including development of those materials – building renovations, start up costs for transportation programs, and student and staff recruitment costs.
- Grant money will go towards getting loans and issuing bonds to the private sector for charter school facilities.
National Activities
Funding
- $200 million increasing to $220 million per year through 2020
Programs
- Grants for experimental programs
- Businesses will be eligible if they partner with a government organization
- “Full service community schools” that coordinate community services
- Private entities will be eligible if they partner with a government organization
- National activities for school safety to improve students safety during and after the school day
- The Secretary of Education can use contracts with private entities
- Awards to provide arts education
- Awards to create educational programming for pre-school and elementary school aged children on television and the Internet
- Money will go to a public telecommunications entity that will contract with producers.
- Awards will to go programs for gifted students
- Contracts can be given to private organizations
Title VIII: General Provisions
Department of Education Staff
- Within one year of enactment (December 2016), the Secretary of Education must identify all projects that were consolidated or eliminated by ESSA and fire the number of employees who were employed administering or working on those programs.
Control of Funds
- Removes the requirement that States provide assurances that funds will be controlled by public agencies or non-profits
Military Recruiters
- Each local educational agency accepting Federal funds must give military recruiters the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of each high school student in the district, unless the parents have previously opted out.
- Opt-out process:: Parents must submit a written request to the local education agency that their child’s information not be released to military recruiters without the parent’s consent.
- Each local educational agency must notify parents of the option to opt-out of recruitment.
State Opt-Out
- Any State that refuses Federal funds “shall not be required to carry out any of the requirements of such program.”
Title IX: Education for Homeless and Other Laws
Sound Clip Sources
- Forum: Charter and Private Schools, Forum hosted by Senator Tim Scott (GA), February 9, 2015.
- Panelists:
- Frederick “Rick” Hess, American Enterprise Institute
- Ann Duplessis, Former Louisiana State Senator, Senior Vice President for Liberty Bank & Trust, President of Louisiana Federation for Children
- Emily Kim, Executive Vice President of Success Academy Charter Schools
- Timestamps and Transcripts
- {14:15} Rick Hess: Sitting immediately next to me, we’ve got Ann Duplessis. Ann’s a former state senator in Louisiana. She’s president of Louisiana Federation for Children, where she partners with local and national policy leaders to promote educational options. She continues to work full time while she does this, as Senior Vice President for Liberty Bank & Trust in New Orleans. Oh! She’s also the chair of the Louisiana State Board of Supervisors. Following Hurricane Katrina, it was Ann who authored a bill which allowed the state to take over the majority of schools in New Orleans Parish, which lead to the thriving charter-school movement that you see in New Orleans today.
- {40:50} Ann Duplessis:Unfortunately, where we are today is, this is big business. Unknown Speaker: That’s right. Duplessis: Education is big business. We are fighting money; we are fighting tradition; we are fighting people’s jobs; and so until and unless we can get past the issues that this is some tradition that we must maintain, until we can have people understand that we need to create new traditions, until we can get past that the jobs that we’re talking about are not jobs that we need to protect, if those jobs aren’t protecting our kids, we have to get past that. And unless we can get our elected officials to understand that, this will all continue to be more of a challenge.
- {48:00} Emily Kim-Charters: I want to give one example of a piece of paper that we really, truly dislike, and it’s—every year there is this requirement that teachers who are not certified have to send home in the backpack folder for their scholars a piece of paper saying, just wanted you to know, parents, I’m not highly qualified. So, yes, I’ve been teaching for five years, and my scholars are in the top one percent in the state of New York, but I just wanted you to know that I didn’t have that thing called highly qualified, and somebody thought that I should write you and tell you and let you know. I mean, it’s to a level that is truly, truly absurd; whereas, we would want the teacher to write home and say, look, this is what we are doing to get your scholar to the highest potential, and I’ve been doing it for five years very successfully, and this is what you need to do is bring your child to school on time, pick your child up from school on time, get the homework done, and make sure that they are motivated at school. And that’s what we’d like to do, and we have to do the other thing instead.
- Panelists:
- Hearing: Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School Choice, House Education and the Workforce Committee, February 3, 2016.
- Watch on Youtube
- Witness:
- Gerard Robinson: American Enterprise Institute
- Timestamps and Transcripts
- {27:15} Gerard Robinson: I can tell you quite clearly that school choice is not a sound bite; it’s a social movement. From 1990 to 2015, over 40 states have introduced different types of school-choice legislation, both public and private.
- Video: Interview with David Brian, President & CEO of Entertainment Properties Trust, August 15, 2012
- Video: Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards by CGCS Video Maker, 2012.
Additional Reading
- Article: Lawsuit accuses Arizona charter schools of teaching history with religious slant by Garrett Mitchell, The Arizona Republic, September 16, 2016.
- Article: LA charter school abruptly closes for lack of students by Brenda Gazzar, Los Angeles Daily News, September 15, 2016.
- Article: Lake Forest Charter School, Liberty Bank & Trust Present 4th Annual ‘Cocktails And Blues’ Benefit Featuring Gina Brown, Biz New Orleans, August 31, 2016.
- Article: A Sea of Charter Schools in Detroit Leaves Students Adrift by Kate Zernike, New York Times, June 28, 2016.
- Article: Inside the Hedge Fund Infatuation with Charter Schools by Stephen Vita, Investopedia, March 9, 2016.
- Article: GOP Candidates Probably Can’t Repeal Common Core by Lauren Camera, US News & World Report, March 4, 2016.
- Article: Why Education Activists Are Furious at ExxonMobil’s CEO by Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, December 29, 2015.
- Article: Business Gets Schooled by Peter Elkind, Fortune, December 23, 2015.
- Article: 10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ All-Charter School System Has Proven a Failure by Colleen Kimmet, In These Times, August 28, 2015.
- Article: The Big Easy’s Grand Experiment by Thomas Toch, US News & World Report, August 18, 2015.
- Report: Brought to You by Wal-Mart? How the Walton Family Foundation’s Ideological Pursuit is Damaging Charter Schooling, American Federation of Teachers, June 2015
- Article: Charter groups top unions in lobbying, campaign spending by Bill Mahoney, Eliza Shapiro, and Jessica Bakeman, Politico, February 20, 2015.
- Article: Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption by Kristin Rawls, AlterNet, January 21, 2015.
- Report: A Growing Movement: America’s Largest Charter School Communities by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, December 2014.
- Article: 120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric by Scott Beauchamp, The Atlantic, August 12, 2014.
- Article: A dozen problems with charter schools by Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, May 20, 2014.
- Blog post: Big Profits in Not-for-Profit Charter Schools by Alan Singer, The Huffington Post, April 7, 2014.
- Article: Why wealthy foreigners invest in U.S. charter schools by Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, February 15, 2013.
- Article: KKR Partnership Makes an Education Push by Gregory Zuckerman, The Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2011.
- Article: U.S. Gives Charter Schools a Big Push in New Orleans by Susan Saulny, The New York Times, June 13, 2006.
- Article: N.O. Teachers Union Loses Its Force in Storm’s Wake by Michael Hoover, Times-Picayune, March 5, 2006.
- Article: Students Return to Big Changes in New Orleans by Susan Saulny, The New York Times, January 4, 2006.
- Commentary: The Promise of Vouchers by Milton Friedman, The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2005.
Additional Information
- OpenSecrets.org: Lobbying Information for S. 1177: Every Student Succeeds Act
- OpenSecrets.org: Lobbyists representing National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 2015
- Website: Walton Family Foundation: K-12 Education(http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/our-impact/k12-education)
- Website: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC): Education
Music Presented in This Episode
- Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)
Cover Art
Design by Only Child Imaginations
