Education Week - January 18, 2017 - 24

Policy Suggestions
For the New
Administration
In the wake of the 2016 election, Education Week
Commentary asked five education policy experts
their thoughts on the following question: What
should be the K-12 policy priority for the Trump
administration? And what levers would need to be
pulled to make that a reality? The responses, which
come from across the policy spectrum, highlight a
range of ideas.

Getty

SUGGESTIONS

Work Across the Aisle

Empower States

Expand Opportunity

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By Catherine Brown
n a televised interview last August, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he wanted to
cut the U.S. Department of Education down to
"shreds." His central K-12 education proposal
would shift more than half of federal K-12 education funding into a voucher-style program-a
policy even a GOP-controlled Congress rejected
in 2015. And then, the president-elect nominated
Betsy DeVos-a longtime champion of private school
vouchers-to serve as our country's next secretary of
education.
With such hostility toward public education, Trump
underscores his aim to privatize education-from cradle
to career-as well as his plan to scale back the federal
Department of Education's resources.
For many, the question the country is left with now is
how far will Trump go and can he be stopped?
First, let's be clear about what President-elect Trump
should do: The new administration should focus on using
public dollars to strengthen schools and continue to improve on record-high graduation rates. Trump's administration should also support charters, which are innovative
public schools.
But private school vouchers, like those supported by
Betsy DeVos, are clearly ineffective: A report from the
Brookings Institution in May 2016 showed students
who made use of those vouchers performed worse on
assessments than their peers who remained in public
schools. Second, the federal government should maintain its focus on young people who are most at risk by
providing targeted resources to disadvantaged students
in public schools. Funding for special education services
for nearly 7 million students with disabilities and supplemental funding to 56,000 high-poverty schools serving
24 million low-income students should continue. These
funds should supplement state and local resources, not
supplant them.
Third, Trump should modernize and elevate the teaching profession by investing in programs that support
teachers and encourage states and school districts to
address all aspects of the teacher pipeline. Teachers are
being asked to do more every day to ensure students can
compete with their global peers, yet teachers receive inadequate pay, support, and preparation.
Finally, the new president must reassure many of the
students and families who felt endangered by his campaign rhetoric. The Education Department's office for civil
rights should aggressively enforce existing civil rights
laws and make sure that schools are safe and supportive
places to learn for all students, regardless of their race,
gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, or disability status.
While uncertainty remains on how Trump will govern-
and his ability to actually get things done-the nation's
schoolchildren need to be certain that he will help all of
them succeed. n
CATHERINE BROWN is the vice president for education policy at the
Washington-based Center for American Progress.

By Jonathan Butcher
here is evidence that President-elect Donald
Trump's campaign proposal to divert $20 billion in federal funds to help children attend
private schools of choice may sound appealing
to many people. A 2015 survey of black voters
in four states from the Black Alliance for Educational Options found that 60 percent supported private school scholarships. Another
survey, by the American Federation for Children (chaired until
recently by Betsy DeVos, the incoming president's choice for
U.S. secretary of education), found that 68 percent of white voters likely supported more school choices.
President Barack Obama's opposition to such ideas proved
an obstacle to creating and expanding parental choices, especially in Washington. Renewing Washington's Opportunity
Scholarships-which help low-income families afford private
school tuition in our nation's capital-should be a priority for
Trump's first 100 days.
And then he should reconsider his larger campaign promise.
Recent examples from education policy are instructive as to
why the federal government should not use promises of financial help to coerce states to change their laws. Federal support
for the Common Core State Standards caused a clash of ideas
among families, taxpayers, and state and federal lawmakers.
In 2012, 90 percent of respondents to an Education Next survey supported the common core, but after years of wrangling
over Washington's role and a raft of YouTube videos created
by parents and students frustrated with fuzzy math, support
dropped to 50 percent in 2015.
Did parents and teachers change their minds about higher
standards, or can Washington not control the impact of its decisions-which affect children in nearly 132,000 public and
private schools across 50 states?
The answer is likely the latter.
Parental choices in education differ from one place to another
by design and per student needs. For example, Arizona's education savings accounts allow families to use preloaded Visa
cards to buy educational products and services. A similar law
in Florida has the state pay educational vendors directly or reimburse parents for their education-related purchases. Georgia
has four kinds of charter school options, with different authorizers; South Carolina has two.
Betsy DeVos helped make parental choices in education successful for thousands of children around the country through
her work at the American Federation for Children. As secretary, her advocacy for more success surrounding parental
choice in education will be critical.
But the new administration should not design the same education choices for every state-such standardization is what
has forced traditional schools to try to be all things to all children instead of focusing on the areas in which a traditional
school may excel.
Leave parental choices in education to state and local policymakers so they can respond to families. Washington's absence
would be a welcome change. n
JONATHAN BUTCHER is the education director at the Goldwater Institute,
headquartered in Phoenix, and a senior fellow at the Nashville-based Beacon
Center of Tennessee.

24 | EDUCATION WEEK | January 18, 2017 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary

By Matt Gandal
f this presidential election revealed one thing, it's
that many Americans don't feel secure about their
economic future. That should place education at
the top of the agenda in states and communities,
because it is America's economic engine.
President-elect Donald Trump and his administration should forge a stronger bond between
education and the economy by supporting existing strategies in high-performing states and encouraging
tighter connections between the K-12 sector, higher education, and the workforce. Here are six recommendations to
help accomplish those tasks:
* Maintain a steady focus on postsecondary preparation and success for all. Nearly all the jobs created
after the Great Recession required postsecondary education or training. Those who don't earn a meaningful credential after high school-a two- or four-year college degree or certificate with demonstrated employer value-will
struggle in the United States. Education policy at the federal, state, and local levels should be driven by clear goals
for increasing credential attainment, and all educators
should feel mutually responsible for achieving these goals.
* Make career preparation a high priority. An increasing number of states are focused on improving the
quality of career education, providing all students access
to pathways that combine rigorous academics with workbased learning opportunities. This work holds great potential to provide young people-in both rural and urban
areas-with a meaningful path to the workforce. Reauthorization of the Perkins Act provides an opportunity for the
new administration to lead by emphasizing high-quality
pathways that lead to credentials of value.
* Don't undermine states' efforts to establish high
standards. Although standards have become politicized,
the intent in most states has been right: to raise expectations for students so that they are well prepared at the
end of high school for the demands of college and careers.
The Every Student Succeeds Act rightly reiterates that
standards are the province of states, not the federal government. The administration should resist any temptation
to get involved with standards.
* Support strong accountability systems. The administration should expect that states continue to assess
and publicly report school performance, creating greater
transparency around results. It should support states'
efforts to implement quality assessments, emphasizing
college- and career-ready measures that open doors to
students' futures. And it should encourage strong data systems that safeguard student privacy while disaggregating
information on student subgroups and forging connections
across K-12, higher education, and the workforce. All publicly funded schools-traditional and charter alike-should
be subject to the same rigorous performance expectations,
with a deep focus on closing gaps.
* Use the limited federal role to push for K-12,
higher education, and workforce alignment. Ownership for student success must be shared across systems.
This means establishing common priorities, removing red
tape that hinders cross-sector partnerships, and creat-
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Education Week - January 18, 2017

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