1. CD135: Education is Big Business (Every Student Succeeds Act) Jennifer Briney 1:30:56

The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed into law at the end of 2015 and is a major overhaul of education policy in the United States. In this episode, find out how the new law will likely lead to a massive transfer of taxpayer money into private pockets.

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S. 1177: Every Student Succeeds Act Bill Highlights

Section 4: Transition

Title I: Improving basic programs operated by State and local educational agencies

Funding

State Plans

Testing

School Choice

Secretary of Education’s Role

Accountability

Local Educational Agency Plans

Parents Right to Know

Schoolwide Programs

“Targeted Assistance Schools”

Children Enrolled in Private Schools

Title II: Preparing, training, and recruiting high-quality teachers, principals, or other school leaders

Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program

Civics Courses

Title III: Language Instruction for English learners and immigrant students

Funding

Process

Title IV: 21st Century Schools

Funding

Community Learning Centers Funding

Purpose

  • Private entities are eligible for 5 year grants to operate Community Learning Centers for extra education programs.
  • State applications will be deemed approved if the Secretary of Education takes no action within 120 days.
  • Applying entities get to decide the purpose of the Community Learning Centers they will operate and must include that information in their application.
    • Activities can include tutoring, mentoring, financial and environmental literacy programs, nutritional education, physical education, services for the disabled, after school English learning classes, cultural programs, technology education programs, library services, parenting skills programs, drug and violence prevention programs, computer science, and career readiness programs.

Charter Schools Purpose

  • “To increase the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the United States”
  • “To encourage States to provide support to charter schools for facilities financing in an amount more nearly commensurate to the amount States typically provide for traditional public schools”

Funding

National Activities Funding

  • $200 million increasing to $220 million per year through 2020

Programs

Title VIII: General Provisions

Department of Education Staff

  • Within one year of enactment (December 2016), the Secretary of Education must identify all projects that were consolidated or eliminated by ESSA and fire the number of employees who were employed administering or working on those programs.

Control of Funds

Military Recruiters

State Opt-Out

Title IX: Education for Homeless and Other Laws

Sound Clip Sources

  • Forum: Charter and Private Schools, Forum hosted by Senator Tim Scott (GA), February 9, 2015.
    • Panelists:
      • Frederick “Rick” Hess, American Enterprise Institute
      • Ann Duplessis, Former Louisiana State Senator, Senior Vice President for Liberty Bank & Trust, President of Louisiana Federation for Children
      • Emily Kim, Executive Vice President of Success Academy Charter Schools
    • Timestamps and Transcripts
      • {14:15} Rick Hess: Sitting immediately next to me, we’ve got Ann Duplessis. Ann’s a former state senator in Louisiana. She’s president of Louisiana Federation for Children, where she partners with local and national policy leaders to promote educational options. She continues to work full time while she does this, as Senior Vice President for Liberty Bank & Trust in New Orleans. Oh! She’s also the chair of the Louisiana State Board of Supervisors. Following Hurricane Katrina, it was Ann who authored a bill which allowed the state to take over the majority of schools in New Orleans Parish, which lead to the thriving charter-school movement that you see in New Orleans today.
      • {40:50} Ann Duplessis:Unfortunately, where we are today is, this is big business. Unknown Speaker: That’s right. Duplessis: Education is big business. We are fighting money; we are fighting tradition; we are fighting people’s jobs; and so until and unless we can get past the issues that this is some tradition that we must maintain, until we can have people understand that we need to create new traditions, until we can get past that the jobs that we’re talking about are not jobs that we need to protect, if those jobs aren’t protecting our kids, we have to get past that. And unless we can get our elected officials to understand that, this will all continue to be more of a challenge.
      • {48:00} Emily Kim-Charters: I want to give one example of a piece of paper that we really, truly dislike, and it’s—every year there is this requirement that teachers who are not certified have to send home in the backpack folder for their scholars a piece of paper saying, just wanted you to know, parents, I’m not highly qualified. So, yes, I’ve been teaching for five years, and my scholars are in the top one percent in the state of New York, but I just wanted you to know that I didn’t have that thing called highly qualified, and somebody thought that I should write you and tell you and let you know. I mean, it’s to a level that is truly, truly absurd; whereas, we would want the teacher to write home and say, look, this is what we are doing to get your scholar to the highest potential, and I’ve been doing it for five years very successfully, and this is what you need to do is bring your child to school on time, pick your child up from school on time, get the homework done, and make sure that they are motivated at school. And that’s what we’d like to do, and we have to do the other thing instead.
  • Hearing: Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School Choice, House Education and the Workforce Committee, February 3, 2016.
    • Watch on Youtube
    • Witness:
    • Timestamps and Transcripts
      • {27:15} Gerard Robinson: I can tell you quite clearly that school choice is not a sound bite; it’s a social movement. From 1990 to 2015, over 40 states have introduced different types of school-choice legislation, both public and private.
  • Video: Interview with David Brian, President & CEO of Entertainment Properties Trust, August 15, 2012
  • Video: Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards by CGCS Video Maker, 2012.

Additional Reading

Additional Information

Music Presented in This Episode

Cover Art

Design by Only Child Imaginations

Jennifer Briney started paying attention to world events while studying in Germany in the spring of 2003 when the United States overthrew the government of Iraq. After experiencing the war from outside the United States, she started asking questions about her government. Every answer led to fifty more questions. This led to a thirst for information that she is still unable to quench.

Over the years, the feeling like she was the only person paying attention to this information was making Jen insane so in late 2012, she launched Congressional Dish in order to share the information, to have an emotional outlet for dealing with the discoveries, and to create a community of people who were interested in Congress’s effect on our lives. Congressional Dish is now her full-time career, thanks entirely to the support from our growing community of producers from all over the world.