Representatives and Senators from the Republican AND Democratic parties questioned the four turn-around models mandated by the United States Department of Education (USDE). The overly prescriptive models mandated in the regulations require: 1.) Closing the school and sending the students to higher achieving schools, 2.) Replacing the principal and most of the staff, 3.) Restarting the school by changing it to a Charter or using an education management organization, and 4.) Requiring the school to implement a basket of strategies labeled “transformation.”
The bipartisan comments are: the models are inflexible, more intrusive, beyond the requirements of current law, are outside the reauthorization process, and are based on insufficient scientific based research. Simply put, more flexibility for schools is needed.
The four models that are criticized are currently required for states to apply for and receive both the Racing to the Top Funds and the School Improvement (1003g) Funds. G.T. Thompson, our Congressman from Bellefonte, believes that the administration added the requirements for the 1003g funds outside of the legislative process and without Congressional oversight. There appears to be a disconnect between the administration and Congress. As with every reauthorization, Congress, when focused, will have substantial input in the new legislation. With healthcare, immigration, the war in Afghanistan, and now the oil leak, Congress simply has not focused on what the administration is mandating in education. They will focus in time.