- President Obama released his 2016 budget proposal this week, and the media welcomed it with loads of over-analysis. Yet Congress has no use for it. One Republican House member went so far as to call it “laughable.” It won’t guide legislation for the next twelve months, regardless of what it says about testing or charter schools or anything else. Moreover, the Republicans’ aversion is based on far more than partisanship. The $4 trillion budget is packed with new taxes, yet still isn’t balanced—a major problem when the government is already borrowing money for the programs we have. The White House called it the “beginning of a negotiation.” Translation: It’s unreasonable, and they know it.
- On Monday, comments closed on the Department of Education’s proposed regulations designed to improve the quality of teacher-preparation programs. Two noteworthy changes would be the collection and distribution of more meaningful data on program quality and the withholding of TEACH grants if programs aren’t up to par. Both are worthwhile upgrades, considering the grisly state of U.S. teacher training. Not surprisingly, the major teacher and professor advocacy groups opposed the regulations, including the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, complaining that the regs are too test-reliant and onerous. The real news, however, came in the form of strong support from Deans for Impact and Art Levine of the Woodrow Wilson Group.
- The Washington Post reports that Washington, D.C. schools might start granting GED earners high school diplomas. The test, which has been around since the 1940s, assesses competency in math, science, social studies, reading, and writing. Recent revisions have made the GED more rigorous; granting test takers high school diplomas would ostensibly eliminate the “stigma” that makes it harder for GED graduates to get a job or pursue higher education. But not everyone is sold. School board member (and Fordham friend) Ruth Wattenberg worries about raising academic standards for a high school diploma on the other hand while saying on the other, ‘Oh, look: Here’s a back door you can go through.” This is what makes “competency-based education” such a perplexing issue.
- In late December, Ohio Governor John Kasich publicly pledged to “fix the lack of regulation on charter schools.” This week, the work began with high-priority legislation aimed at doing just that. House Bill 2 addresses vital issues including transparency, sponsor/school relationships, board roles, and accountability. The governor’s budget, previewed on Monday, proposes a number of changes aimed at incentivizing good sponsor practices and penalizing poor performance (among many other K–12 education proposals). Fordham’s own Chad Aldis said these efforts are “placing Ohio’s charter sector on a new and better path.” With the right players all working together to improve educational quality for students in Ohio’s charter schools, the entire sector is on course for some truly monumental positive change.
