After more than a decade of debate, the No Child Left Behind law appears to be on its way out. On Wednesday, U.S. senators passed a new bill that overhauls federal guidelines on education.
But at least one Seminole County parent is already skeptical of the new measure.
Barbara Beasley says she’s so frustrated with state and federal education mandates, she’s considering homeschooling her daughter next year. She says the overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law won’t change that.
“There are a few pieces of the legislation that will perhaps have benefit, but overall the law in general does more damage than it does good,” said Beasley.
The “Every Student Succeeds Act” keeps the part of the No Child Left Behind law that federally mandates statewide reading and math tests for certain grades. But the new legislation limits the federal government’s role in education, leaving it more up to states and local school districts to assess school and teacher performance.
Beasley is one of several Central Florida parents who are a part of the opt-out movement. Beasley says she would like to see an end to any testing that’s used to evaluate teacher performance. She says the federal government giving more power to the states is a bad idea.
“I’m concerned because it incentivizes states to maintain common core curriculum, which you can dress it up as Florida Standards, or however your particular state dresses it up, it’s still common core curriculum. And we’ve already discovered, it doesn’t work,” said Beasley.
In Seminole County, school leaders have fought for more local control on how to test and assess students. When we reached out to Seminole County Public Schools Superintendent Walt Griffin Wednesday, a spokesman for the school district says Griffin had not had a chance to read through the new bill, which is hundreds of pages long.
One Seminole County School Board member did say at first glance, the U.S. Senate bill appears to be a step in the right direction.
We also reached out to other school districts, but did not immediately hear back.
The U.S. senators from Florida weighed in on the Senate’s passing of the bill.
Sen. Marco Rubio:
"While the Every Student Succeeds Act takes important steps in restoring some control over education decisions back to the states, it does not go far enough. Unfortunately, the bill does not grant states autonomy in all education decision-making, expands the federal government's role in Pre-K, and fails to include important measures that broaden school choice. Due to these shortcomings, I am unable to lend my support to this bill.”
Sen. Bill Nelson:
"No Child Left Behind has been in need of reform for some time. The one-size-fits-all policy didn't work for many states. So the bill we passed today will allow the states to choose whether to use Common Core or create their own system of standards, while also maintaining a basic federal framework to ensure students’ needs are being met.”
The bill is now scheduled to go on to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.