Education Week - June 21, 2017 - 18

Ed. Dept. Demands More Detail From States' ESSA Plans
Three states receive
detailed feedback
By Alyson Klein
The Trump administration has
given three states-Delaware, Nevada, and New Mexico-a detailed
list of information that they need to
supply in order to get their plans for
the Every Student Succeeds Act approved.
And some of the asks, especially
for Delaware, offer clues as to how
strict or flexible the U.S. Department of Education will be in interpreting parts of ESSA.
For instance, the department
wants Delaware to reconsider its
proposed student-achievement
goals, since it doesn't consider them
to be "ambitious." (ESSA calls for
states to set "ambitious" achievement goals but doesn't say what
that means.)
In addition, the Education Department doesn't think ESSA allows
states to be able to count science

and social studies test scores toward
a school's academic rating, as Delaware wants to do.
The department also is questioning whether states, including Delaware, can use Advanced Placement
tests as a measure of college and
career readiness because the tests
aren't offered in every school in the
state. That's a big deal, because
more than a dozen states have written AP into their plans. And some
other measurements that states
have chosen to gauge college readiness, like vocational programs and
dual enrollment, aren't available in
every school, either.

Setting Limits
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos has been vocal about the
need for local authority in ESSA
implementation, and her team designed an ESSA application that
asks for the bare minimum of information on state plans. What's more,
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an
ESSA architect and DeVos ally, told
the National School Boards Asso-

ciation that DeVos would approve
every state's ESSA plan.
Meanwhile, civil rights advocates
are worried that the Trump administration won't give state plans a
thorough look.
So far, 16 states and the District
of Columbia have turned in their
plans, and none have been given approval. The feedback on these first
states indicates that the department is planning to set some limits
on states, based on its interpretation
of the law. But in some cases, those
efforts could prove complicated, as
key parts of ESSA are confusing or
vague. What's more, Congress, with
encouragement from the administration, tossed Obama-era regulations that sought to clarify parts of
the law.
Alexander said he is "reviewing the
department's letters carefully, but I
expect the secretary's actions to be
consistent with the law."
Dale Chu, who is working to review state plans with the Collaborative for Student Success, an advocacy organization in Washington,
was surprised by the level of detail

that the Education Department is
asking from states, given the secretary's rhetoric.
"The messaging that the states
had been hearing up to the submission point was there was no reason
a plan would not have been approved," said Chu, the vice president
for policy and operations at America
Succeeds, which works to get business involved in education.

The most recent f ight in Topeka took place in late-night
meetings in the capitol's chambers and involved a host of committees in both the Senate and
House. Legislators were trying
to craft both an education bill
and a tax plan that would satisfy
the court and the state's fiscally
conservative base-not an easy
task in Kansas.
"It's wrong to put our kids,
schools, and communities through
that risk," Sen. Lynn Rogers, a
Democrat, said of potential school
closings by the court.

Since the court ruled in the
2012 McCleary v. State of Washington case, the legislature has
expanded all-day kindergarten
and preschool but hasn't figured
out a way to pay for the most expensive increase in costs: teacher
salaries.
Democrats there favor a capitalgains tax to provide $3 billion to
schools and the teacher pay bump.
Republicans support an increased
property tax that would bring
$1.4 billion to the school system's
coffers. The state doesn't have an
income tax.
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has
pushed for carbon-emissions, capital-gains, and state business-andoccupation tax increases but recently told legislators they should
learn to compromise.
Education advocates fear that
a compromise won't provide the
schools with enough money to satisfy the court's demands.

Not 'Rubber Stampy'
But this early feedback "wasn't as
rubber-stampy as folks might have
thought it would be," said Chu, who
previously worked in state education departments in Indiana and
Florida. He expects the 33 states
that haven't yet turned in their applications will be "erring more on
the side of providing more clarity
and completeness to their plans."
Chris Minnich, the executive director of the Council of Chief State
School Officers, said the feedback
process seemed "fairly standard. ...
It's a good sign that you actually
have the federal government saying

here are the things we need more
information on."
Among the the Education Department's concerns in its initial round
of feedback are that:
* Delaware is counting science and
social studies test results as "academic indicators" in its system. The
department's understanding of ESSA
is that only reading and math should
count. This matters because states
are supposed to give "much greater
weight" to academic factors than to
other factors in rating schools.
* Nevada needs to provide shortterm goals for academic achievement, both for all students and each
subgroup of students, and explain
how much weight it is giving to language arts as opposed to math when
determining a school's overall score.
* New Mexico needs to better describe its statewide rules for when
a school no longer has to be considered low-performing, and be more
specific about how it would help
schools ensure that low-income and
minority students aren't taught at
disproportionate rates by ineffective
or inexperienced teachers.

By Daarel Burnette II
The yearslong and contentious
school funding disputes in Washington state and Kansas could
come to a head in a matter of
weeks, if not sooner.
Kansas' supreme court could
soon decide whether a new school
funding formula passed by its state
legislature satisfies the court's
order that the state provide enough
money in a way that helps students
meet basic standards.
Meanwhile, the Washington legislature is entangled in yet another
special session, where lawmakers
are trying to come up with an
answer to the state's high-court
demand in 2012 that the state
shoulder more of the salary costs
for teachers. Districts now pay the
majority of those costs.
After several setbacks, both
Washington and Kansas' courts
have said in hearings this past
year that they will seriously consider shutting down schools if legislators fail to live up to their rulings.

Raising Taxes
Kansas' legislature this month
passed two sweeping bills that
would reverse a series of controversial tax hikes and provide the
state's financially strained school
districts with more than $293 million over the next two years.
Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, vetoed the tax hike approved
by lawmakers, but proponents of
the bill overrode it. Brownback
signed the bill into law last week.

Similar to the tax bill, the legislature could override Brownback's
veto if there are enough votes.
The tax legislation would raise
$1.2 billion over two years by increasing income tax rates and ending an exemption for more than
330,000 farmers and business owners, according to the Associated
Press. It also would provide more
than $10 million in state scholarships for students in academically
struggling schools to attend a
school of their choice.
What's more, the measure would
provide funds under a new finance
formula set up under a separate
piece of legislation, which is intended to more effectively distribute money to close achievement
gaps, an issue at the center of the
long-running Gannon v. Kansas
school finance case.
The court ruled earlier this year
that the state's school funding
model gave short shrift to academically struggling students by
not providing enough resources
to help them meet the most basic
standards. The court last year
threatened to shut down the state's
public schools if the legislature
didn't come up with a formula that
distributed funds more equitably
among districts.
While Kansas educators and
Democrats in the legislature have
interpreted the Gannon v. Kansas ruling to mean that the state
owes schools close to $400 million
over the next two years, the state's
more-conservative legislators interpreted the ruling to mean that the
legislature should crack down on its
academically wayward schools.

18 | EDUCATION WEEK | June 21, 2017 | www.edweek.org

Thad Allton/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP

Closing Acts May Be Near
In K-12 Funding Dramas

Washington Standoff
Washington's legislative standoff hinges on how to pour billions more dollars into the state's
coffers for teacher raises and has
placed the state in serious risk of a
state government shutdown if the
budget isn't passed.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback
gives a statement after state
lawmakers overrode the
Republican governor's veto
of a bill raising income taxes
by $1.2 billion over two years.
Revenue from the increase is
to go in part toward increased
school funding.

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Education Week - June 21, 2017

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