Washington Update, by Richard Long
The 109th Congress and the second Bush administration are going to see some significant debates on education during the months ahead. These debates will revolve around funding, new policies for secondary schools, proposed changes for teacher education, Head Start, and further discussions on the next steps for No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Many of these changes will be high on the list of the new secretary of education, Margaret Spellings. Many observers anticipate that the new secretary will push for a more open administration interested in working with different groups and removing barriers to the success of NCLB. During the first Bush administration, the Department of Education had been criticized for being slow in issuing guidance for NCLB and for being difficult to communicate with on a wide range of issues.
Priorities for the Department of Education in 2005 will include building an agenda on secondary education. This includes pushing for an expansion of accountability testing to the high school level and the possibility of a 12th-grade test for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Opinions on these proposals are wide ranging. Many question the cost. Others question the value.
Part of the attention on middle and high schools will involve implementing the new Striving Readers Initiative, which is aimed at providing aid to middle and high school literacy programs. The problem is that the original proposal was for a US$100 million demonstration program. The idea was to selectively fund programs, gather information about effective ones, and disseminate that information.
During the last days of the 108th Congress in November, however, the proposal was cut to US$24.8 million because many members of Congress didn’t want to fund a new program when the budget deficit is approaching a half-trillion dollars for the fiscal year. Striving Readers is one of several initiatives for middle and high school literacy.
Watch for further information about the Striving Readers Initiative in the Struggling Readers and Writers section of the Focus on Topics area of the International Reading Association’s website at www.reading.org.
Another agenda item for the Department of Education involves writing regulations to guide the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The changes in this act will significantly affect those members of the reading community who work with students who have reading difficulties.
Response to Intervention in IDEA, 2004
The definition of learning disabilities has changed, as have the intervention options. For instance, states and school districts may choose to use an intervention model that involves changing the regular education program that the child is participating in and then monitoring how the child responds. Watch for a more complete discussion on the changes in the definition of learning disabilities and the response-to-instruction option at the same web area mentioned earlier.
The 109th Congress also is scheduled to take up the rewriting of several acts. These include the higher education act, the vocational-technical education act, and Head Start. Each of these has different political and policy issues that will affect the IRA community.
For instance, the higher education act has a section on professional development that could be used to support changes to teacher education programs. It also could be used in coordination with a teacher education panel being established by the Institute of Education Sciences. Formal announcement of this panel is expected early this year.
The vocational-technical education act may be changed to encourage schools to strengthen academic programs for students in these curricula. The rewriting of the Head Start Act may strengthen the multibillion dollar early childhood program to include an emphasis on early literacy programs. The timing of all of these reauthorizations is still to be determined.
In preparing for the 2005 Legislative Workshop in Washington, DC, a survey was conducted among leaders of state councils. The top issue that respondents reported to the workshop planners was the need for more funding.
Funding is going to be a demanding issue this year. The administration is pushing to reduce the budget deficit and to maintain and expand tax cuts. The cost of the war in Iraq is also an open question.
All of these factors will create pressure for cuts in domestic spending. For the past several years, Congress has supported the administration’s calls for increased spending for NCLB. Most likely this will no longer be the case.
To achieve the support required for those children in our nation’s schools who most need help, IRA members should contact their members of Congress and express their points of view. To connect with our information system that will be tracking and explaining the ins and outs of funding, contact irawash@reading.org and ask to be placed on our weekly update mailing list.
The months ahead will continue to see changes in how much money is directed toward schools, along with continued changes in how these funds may be spent. IRA is working to communicate with members of Congress and the administration to maintain a dialogue on these critical issues.
New year, full agenda. (February 2005). Reading Today, 22(4), 28.
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