Obama Seeks Overhaul Of No Child Left Behind And Penalties For School District's That Don't Narrow Achievement Gap
U.S. President Barack Obama
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the Determiner Weekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
President Barack Obama's proposal to Congress to overhaul the federal No Child Left Behind Act would, among other things, penalize school districts for low performing schools and for failing to narrow the academic achievement gap between Black and White children at the local level, an action that could force Ohio's state legislature to address the widespread disparities between rich and poor school districts via a complete revision of a funding formula that now relies heavily on property taxes.
"We need to put politics aside and do as a country what is right for children," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, during a teleconference with reporters around the sweeping proposal that also calls for states to adopt college level preparation standards in addition to grade level proficiency that the current law provides for.
Duncan's educational team said yesterday that if school districts do not show improvement in narrowing the academic achievement gap between Black and White children, the proposed law would permit a state takeover of the school district, though educational state takeovers in Ohio have sometimes brought more problems than solutions to impoverished school district's like Cleveland's public schools where in 1997 state education officials took over and dismissed qualified Black principals in lieu of uncertified and unqualified Whites. Also during that time the top level administrative team, inclusive of district assistant superintendents, went from being 67 percent Black to 67 percent White. A year later then U.S. District Court Judge George White granted unitary status to the State of Ohio and the Cleveland School District, thereby releasing it from nearly a two-decade long desegregation court order. The district was then handed to the mayor pursuant to a state law that dismantled the elected school board and gave control to the city's chief leader, which is now Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson.
During a one-on-one interview with Obama and African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman that was published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper in Feb. 2008 during the Democratic primary for president, Coleman quizzed the then presidential hopeful on No Child Left Behind and the achievement gap between Black and White children in urban school districts nationwide, including what is now dubbed the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. In particular she asked what venue could be used to address the issue since desegregation court orders that once measured the achievement gap between Black and White children had become persona non grata.
"The No Child Left Behind Act actually has provisions for monitoring the achievement gap between Black and White children. Whether they are doing it on the local level, I don't know," Obama said during that interview, a discussion that in part led to his zeal in seeking to make it legally mandated through policy changing initiatives at the federal level.
Duncan said that the proposal would increase federal funds by $4 billion to states and punish teachers when low performing schools fail to show improvement. It also holds school districts and states accountable, as opposed to just individual schools, as the current law requires.
No Child Left Behind was one of the few issues where Obama and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton differed during the heated Democratic primary in 2008 that ended in Obama winning the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America. Clinton took the position that No Child Left Behind should be scrapped altogether, a position that teachers unions shared, while Obama said it needed only revision because a vehicle for monitoring educational progress of America's public schools is necessary to enhance educational outcomes. He did, however, say that punishment to individual schools for standardize test results was ludicrous.
"There should not be punishment for standardized testing. And let me again add that we have got to support teachers and reinvest in our public schools," Obama said in the interview with Coleman in 2008, while campaigning for his party's nomination for president, a position that he repeated in announcing his No Child Left Behind proposal for Congress on Saturday.
Scott Blake, a spokesman for Ohio State Superintendent Deborah Delisle, said that Delisle had been out of town and has not yet reviewed the just recently released proposal, and that the issue of school funding in Ohio should be discussed with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.
Last year the Ohio State Legislature, through Strickland's budget proposal, passed House Bill 1, which increases state spending for poor school districts over a period of ten years, though it does not limit the amount of monies that individual school districts can bring in through increased property taxes.
"We cannot limit the amount of money that school districts receive through property taxes," Blake said, raising a question as to whether HB 1 passes constitutional muster since the Ohio Constitution makes the state legislature responsible for providing all children of Ohio with "access to a thorough and efficient education."
If Congress adopts Obama's proposed overall of No Child Left Behind with its mandate to narrow the achievement gap between Black and White students nationwide, Delisle and Cleveland schools CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders might have to quarrel with whether they will lead an effort to lobby the Ohio Supreme Court to again order the Ohio State Legislature to revise its system of funding education partially through property taxes. Ohio's high court, in 1997, found it unconstitutional and state legislators have ignored at least two court orders for a revised method since that time.
Because of lucrative tax bases or financially well off families some Ohio school districts such as the Perry Local School District with its nearby nuclear power plant spend double the amount of money per kid annually in comparison to Cleveland, and Shaker Heights and Beachwood school districts spend at least a fourth more per child each year. Yet, public school children statewide, including those attending the predominately Black Cleveland Metropolitan School District, are measured by the same yard stick relative to state mandated proficiency tests.
A spokesperson for Sanders did not return phone calls seeking comment on Obama's No Child Left Behind proposal, and neither did Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quoke.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the Determiner Weekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
President Barack Obama's proposal to Congress to overhaul the federal No Child Left Behind Act would, among other things, penalize school districts for low performing schools and for failing to narrow the academic achievement gap between Black and White children at the local level, an action that could force Ohio's state legislature to address the widespread disparities between rich and poor school districts via a complete revision of a funding formula that now relies heavily on property taxes.
"We need to put politics aside and do as a country what is right for children," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, during a teleconference with reporters around the sweeping proposal that also calls for states to adopt college level preparation standards in addition to grade level proficiency that the current law provides for.
Duncan's educational team said yesterday that if school districts do not show improvement in narrowing the academic achievement gap between Black and White children, the proposed law would permit a state takeover of the school district, though educational state takeovers in Ohio have sometimes brought more problems than solutions to impoverished school district's like Cleveland's public schools where in 1997 state education officials took over and dismissed qualified Black principals in lieu of uncertified and unqualified Whites. Also during that time the top level administrative team, inclusive of district assistant superintendents, went from being 67 percent Black to 67 percent White. A year later then U.S. District Court Judge George White granted unitary status to the State of Ohio and the Cleveland School District, thereby releasing it from nearly a two-decade long desegregation court order. The district was then handed to the mayor pursuant to a state law that dismantled the elected school board and gave control to the city's chief leader, which is now Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson.
During a one-on-one interview with Obama and African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman that was published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper in Feb. 2008 during the Democratic primary for president, Coleman quizzed the then presidential hopeful on No Child Left Behind and the achievement gap between Black and White children in urban school districts nationwide, including what is now dubbed the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. In particular she asked what venue could be used to address the issue since desegregation court orders that once measured the achievement gap between Black and White children had become persona non grata.
"The No Child Left Behind Act actually has provisions for monitoring the achievement gap between Black and White children. Whether they are doing it on the local level, I don't know," Obama said during that interview, a discussion that in part led to his zeal in seeking to make it legally mandated through policy changing initiatives at the federal level.
Duncan said that the proposal would increase federal funds by $4 billion to states and punish teachers when low performing schools fail to show improvement. It also holds school districts and states accountable, as opposed to just individual schools, as the current law requires.
No Child Left Behind was one of the few issues where Obama and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton differed during the heated Democratic primary in 2008 that ended in Obama winning the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America. Clinton took the position that No Child Left Behind should be scrapped altogether, a position that teachers unions shared, while Obama said it needed only revision because a vehicle for monitoring educational progress of America's public schools is necessary to enhance educational outcomes. He did, however, say that punishment to individual schools for standardize test results was ludicrous.
"There should not be punishment for standardized testing. And let me again add that we have got to support teachers and reinvest in our public schools," Obama said in the interview with Coleman in 2008, while campaigning for his party's nomination for president, a position that he repeated in announcing his No Child Left Behind proposal for Congress on Saturday.
Scott Blake, a spokesman for Ohio State Superintendent Deborah Delisle, said that Delisle had been out of town and has not yet reviewed the just recently released proposal, and that the issue of school funding in Ohio should be discussed with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.
Last year the Ohio State Legislature, through Strickland's budget proposal, passed House Bill 1, which increases state spending for poor school districts over a period of ten years, though it does not limit the amount of monies that individual school districts can bring in through increased property taxes.
"We cannot limit the amount of money that school districts receive through property taxes," Blake said, raising a question as to whether HB 1 passes constitutional muster since the Ohio Constitution makes the state legislature responsible for providing all children of Ohio with "access to a thorough and efficient education."
If Congress adopts Obama's proposed overall of No Child Left Behind with its mandate to narrow the achievement gap between Black and White students nationwide, Delisle and Cleveland schools CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders might have to quarrel with whether they will lead an effort to lobby the Ohio Supreme Court to again order the Ohio State Legislature to revise its system of funding education partially through property taxes. Ohio's high court, in 1997, found it unconstitutional and state legislators have ignored at least two court orders for a revised method since that time.
Because of lucrative tax bases or financially well off families some Ohio school districts such as the Perry Local School District with its nearby nuclear power plant spend double the amount of money per kid annually in comparison to Cleveland, and Shaker Heights and Beachwood school districts spend at least a fourth more per child each year. Yet, public school children statewide, including those attending the predominately Black Cleveland Metropolitan School District, are measured by the same yard stick relative to state mandated proficiency tests.
A spokesperson for Sanders did not return phone calls seeking comment on Obama's No Child Left Behind proposal, and neither did Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quoke.
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