The bipartisan conference committee on Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) started deliberations Wednesday afternoon, November 18, 2015, to reconcile differences in the ESEA reauthorization bills passed in the U.S. House and Senate. The current ESEA law expired in 2007; however, its provisions, also referred to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), have continued to be monitored and enforced by the U.S. Department of Education, and by the Texas Education Agency and its counterparts in other States and U.S. territories. The final version of ESEA to emerge from conference committee is expected to increase funding levels for ESEA for FY2016 and FY2017 in alignment with the increased budget caps in the recently passed Bipartisan Budget Act.
The final conference committee version of an ESEA bill is also expected to maintain certain federally mandated accountability measures, including required testing in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and in high school. News media sources reported the conference committee chair, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., indicated the final conference committee ESEA bill will eliminate “one-size-fits-all” federal policies for accountability, and also eliminate various “ineffective and duplicative” programs currently authorized under ESEA. The overall result will be a significant reduction in the overall role of the U.S. Department of Education and the number of federal mandates to be followed in the future at the state- and local-levels of the public education system.
To read more on the bipartisan conference committee deliberations that started Wednesday afternoon, November 18, 2015, click on the links below.
Houston Chronicle, November 18, 2015, Congress takes another try at rewriting No Child Left Behind, Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press
Education Week, November 18, 2015, ESEA Conference Committee Kicks Off, NCLB One Step Closer to Extinction, Alyson Klein