Education Secretary Arne Duncan told state school chiefs meeting in Washington on Monday that the Elementary and Secondary Education law is at heart a civil rights law, and that the update Congress is working on must include protection of equity in education.
“At the end of the day we just have to give kids a chance in life. This is about education but it’s about equity, it’s about social justice, it’s about having less of a divide between the haves and have-nots, it’s about more folks being able to go into the middle class,” Duncan said at a national meeting of The Council of Chief State School Officers.
He said the Obama administration thinks the Republican efforts in Congress so far to revise the education law, last known as No Child Left Behind, fall way short. But he said he’s optimistic there could still be a bipartisan compromise reached that President Barack Obama could sign.
Here’s some of what the administration is looking for, according to Duncan: federal spending on early education, more resources for poor schools through Title I, more money for innovative approaches in education and a cap on statewide testing.
Annual statewide tests are needed, the education secretary said, but educators need to be “making sure we’re not getting carried away with assessments.” He said that many states are moving to “a much more thoughtful place around assessments” and that many districts have scaled back on them.
Duncan also said that he thought the name of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act needed to be changed, to take into account the large amount of learning that takes place before a child is 5 and in kindergarten.
“Early childhood is the best investment we can make,” he said, noting that many low-income children start kindergarten a year or more behind. Preschool should be voluntary for families who want it, he said. “As a nation we’re crazy not to provide it.”