No Legislation Left Behind

Andrew Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education, a national non-profit organization. He serves as an education columnist for TIME as well as writing the blog Eduwonk. Prior to his work at Bellwether, Mr. Rotherham was Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Clinton and sat on the Virginia Board of Education. 

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the current iteration of which is the No Child Left Behind law, is years overdue for reauthorization. Why do you think Congress has been unable to get this done in the last few years?

There are multiple factors, and that is the problem. Some are substantive, some are partisan, and some are institutional. The House and Senate have different takes on what should happen. The Administration has a different view than Congress. And, of course, Republicans and Democrats disagree. So it’s not just one thing that needs to be resolved in order to move forward.

Have you seen a similar situation occur before in your years in the education policy world? What lessons can we apply from the past?

It is not unusual for a law to be late being reauthorized. But three things make this situation unusual. First, the length of time is noteworthy. The law is not a little overdue. If it had been reauthorized on schedule, we’d be talking now about getting ready for its next reauthorization. Second, the steps that have been taken to address the problems that are emerging because the law is so overdue to be reauthorized—in particular the Administration’s waiver program—are extraordinary. Third, it’s not just ESEA. Multiple federal education laws are languishing now, and failure to reauthorize on time is now business as usual.

Now that the Obama administration has offered waivers addressing the most immediate demands for reform from districts and schools, is the motivation gone for Congress to reauthorize ESEA in the next four years?

Leave aside what you think about the necessity, substance, or the legality of the waivers: it is hard to argue that they do anything to keep immediate pressure on Congress to act on the law.

If reauthorization doesn’t happen, what does that mean for districts’ and schools’ day-to-day operations? What does it mean for the cohesion of our national education policy?

For school districts, it is the ongoing uncertainty about policy and budget issues that makes their work more difficult than it otherwise would be. That is a broader set of issues than just ESEA. But the coherence/cohesion issue is a big one, especially around issues of accountability. While you have “Race to the Top” spurring states to try new things and be ambitious, there is a quiet race to the bottom happening around accountability.

If Congress reauthorizes a version of ESEA that includes policies counter to what the waivers have put into place, would there likely be pushback from states? Do you think a threat of backlash could affect Congress’ reauthorization discussions?

What would be politically hard is for Congress to take flexibility away from states. But given the politics, that seems unlikely to happen.

How might the results of the November 6th elections affect ESEA reauthorization or impact the implementation of states’ waivers?

The status quo seems to have prevailed — President Obama in the White House, Democrats control the Senate, and Republicans control the House. That is exactly the same line-up that got us where we are on education policy in Washington before November 6th. The one thing that has changed is that the President has been reelected, so Republicans will no longer see every issue through the lens of denying him a second term. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only reason progress on ESEA was so hard.

Feature Photo: cc/Night Owl City