Impact on Education of the November 2012 Elections
by
Ellen Zoccola
| Nov 27, 2012
The results of the November elections will have a significant impact on education—not only on the federal level but the state level as well. In combination classrooms will be impacted with changes in how large classrooms are, who will have access to additional resources and how changes will be implemented. It is important to note that there are over 80 new members of Congress (out of 435), 2,000 new state legislators (out of 7,000), that the Republicans control 30 governorships, the US House of Representatives and every state legislature in the old Confederacy.
| Near Term – |
| 1. | Federal funding for education is part of the mix on resolving the fiscal cliff issues. (The fiscal cliff is the automatic spending cuts that hit the federal sector on January 2, 2013 and the automatic tax increases on December 31, 2012 – note most of the automatic cuts to education don’t hit until July 2013.) If the federal government does not increase revenues, the only way to reduce the deficit will be funding cuts, education would be a part of those cuts. Currently, Title I, IDEA and Pell Grants make up 70% of USED education spending. |
| 2. | State legislation – Ohio (in a lame duck session) and several other states are taking up teaching of reading, teacher education, early childhood assessment and other issues as an attempt to improve early reading education. |
| | a. | Note – the National Governors Association is building a significant effort in the area of early childhood literacy |
| | b. | States with waivers – the states with waivers are in a bit of a pickle, many are trying to figure out how to implement what they have agreed to do, this includes but is not limited to: |
| | | i. | Teacher and principal evaluations |
| | | ii. | Implementing college and career ready standards |
| 3. | Core Standards – while several states are debating whether or not to reverse their agreement to adopt the core standards but most are going ahead with implementation. Most are assuming: |
| | a. | There need to be funds for curriculum development and professional development (the key issue is will there be enough funding). |
| | b. | When the new assessments come on-line they will show an overall drop in student achievement. |
| | | i. | It will also show a bigger achievement gap than has been reported before. |
| | | ii. | There will also be many questions on the use of technology for the assessment |
| Into the Spring of 2013 – |
| 4. | Reauthorizations – there are eight different measures that the Congress could take up during the next two years. As of now it looks like early childhood and Higher Education are the two first out of the box. The Higher Education Act is mostly about student loans and Pell Grants, but there are also sections on teacher education. There will also be a continued push to create public Charter Institutions of Teacher Education to by-pass traditional state certification. |
| | a. | No Child Left Behind (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) has been up for rewriting. The Senate education committee chair wishes to move it soon, and the House education chair has said he too wishes to move it forward but he may have over half of his committee change (again to a majority (of the majority) being new to the Congress and to education). |
| | b. | Other issues pending are: Perkins Act, Head Start, Child-Care Community Block Grant, Institute for Education Sciences, Workforce Investment Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). |
| 5. | Education Funding in FY 13 and beyond |
| | a. | The spending for the next school year by the federal government will need to be updated by March 27th. This is different than the fiscal cliff issues which are more about overall levels (this much for education, this much for defense) and more about how much for specific programs (Striving Readers, Title I, IDEA, etc.). |
| Looking a bit over the horizon – |
| 6. | There will be increased links between Title I and Head Start |
| 7. | There will be increased links between IDEA and Title I |
| 8. | There will be increased links between technology and instruction |
| 9. | The Administration will begin to shift to more emphasis on personalization of instruction. |
| 10. | The role of the manufacturing sector to force attention on improving literacy instruction will become significant – over 600,000 jobs in the US are going wanting for people with the literacy skills needed to meet the demands of those jobs. |
Posted on November 27, 2012
Rich Long, IRA Government Relations, November 27, 2012
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