Federal Education Policy Should Support Student Achievement, State Innovation

State legislators develop policy guidelines for federal role in education

WASHINGTON – On the heels of the president announcing major federal investment in education, state legislators are asserting that education policy needs to support innovations in the states. After a year-long examination of federal education policy, a National Conference of State Legislatures’ task force of state legislators concluded that student achievement has not significantly improved with federal intervention.

The report, “Education at a Crossroads: A New Path for Federal and State Education Policy” released Feb. 1, includes a list of recommendations for the federal role in education reform efforts.

“In our respective roles, we should collaborate in our effort to maximize the educational benefits to students in our 50 states. We’re moving beyond just criticizing programs that don’t work and have identified the best ways to use federal money to support the K-12 system,” said New York Senator Steve Saland, co-chairman of NCSL’s Education Task Force. “We’ve developed a list of recommendations for the president and Congress to meet the goals and objectives for improving education. States aren’t being reactive, we’re leading the charge.”

In the report, state legislators from across the country reviewed federal efforts in the K-12 education system and found that they failed to improve student achievement. Federal education policies tend to rely heavily on processes and compliance rather than maximizing the limited resources available, according to the findings. Furthermore, the report urges a re-defined role for federal education policy to one that is “focused, transparent and has clearly defined roles for all.”

The NCSL Task Force on Federal Education Policy offers recommendations for a more clearly defined and productive role for the federal government:

•  Focus federal funding on those most at-risk. Use a research-based formula that emphasizes the neediest students instead of trying to make system-wide reforms with limited federal funds.
• Fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for special education programs and other services for children with disabilities. That would free $16 billion annually for states to use to reform and innovate at the state and local levels.
• Change the tax-credit provisions of school construction bonding laws. This also would free tens of billions of dollars in state and local resources that would otherwise be spent on debt-service for school bonds.
• Redirect the federal focus to research and reporting on what works and why. At the same time, don’t pick or mandate how and when “winning strategies” should be required by law or “encouraged” by withholding additional federal resources.
• Reward and encourage innovation—not conformity with others or compliance with a checklist of reforms, but progress toward goals. 

“States provide more funding for education than any other government service.  On average, one-third of state budgets are devoted to supporting K-12 education alone,” said West Virginia Sen. Bob Plymale, co-chairman of the task force. “K-12 education is the largest and one of the most important investments states make. And the federal government provides only a little more than 7 cents of every dollar spent.”

In 2005, after nine months of meetings and deliberations, a similar bipartisan NCSL task force evaluated the affect of No Child Left Behind on states. The report issued, “Delivering the Promise: State Recommendations for Improving No Child Left Behind,” documented the structure and implementation of NCLB as well as identified its overreach and weaknesses. Although that report was comprehensive, it did not evaluate federal education policy and it did not make recommendations for the future of federal education policy. The report being released today does that. 

Today, President Obama will release his FY 2011 budget with proposed increases in federal education spending, including an expansion of the Race to the Top grants, which prescribe a one-size-fits-all formula for states to comply in order to receive federal dollars. Historically, the federal government played an important role in public education largely through process and compliance actions that addressed blatant and egregious access and equity issues.

The task force found, however, that federal policy has recently applied the same process and compliance remedies to far more complex problems in public education such as mandating universal student achievement.  The Obama administration has signaled its commitment to the compliance model with regulatory actions in the Race to the Top grants in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

While No Child Left Behind mandated standards, testing and punishments, this new federal formula is a mix of four reforms that states must do to be eligible for education funds. These include tying enhanced data systems of student assessments to teacher evaluations, intervening in failing schools more often in the form of opened-up charter laws, committing to national standards and assessments, and distributing good teachers more equally to low-performing schools.

State legislators are constantly looking for “what works” to improve student achievement. While states know some things that work—good teaching, strong school leadership, and smaller class sizes in the early grades—policymakers continue to search for effective models and good practices that are successful for students. And maintaining and increasing state education funding continues to be a challenge under arduous federal directives. The federal government provides a mere $40 billion of the $550 billion that states spend on K-12 education.

“Our children deserve better. They deserve an education system where resources—whatever their source-—are maximized, not ground up in procedural and compliance issues,” according to the report. “They deserve and we should require that federal resources enhance state structures and support state efforts instead of undermining state efforts and circumventing state governance structures.”

“If we are to maximize our efforts and resources, the business of K-12 policy, like any other endeavor, should be focused, transparent and have clearly defined roles for all,” according to the report.  For more information or to obtain a copy of the report, contact the NCSL press room.

NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the states, commonwealths and territories. It provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues and is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of the states in the American federal system.