By: Jessica Lusky
March 12th was a very significant and upsetting day for public education in the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives introduced Bill 610, which will effectively start the school voucher system to be used by children ages 5 to 17, and starts the de-funding process of public schools. The bill will eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) of 1965 which is the nation's educational law and provides equal opportunity in education. It is a comprehensive program that covers plans for struggling learners, AP classes, ESL classes, classes for minorities such as Native Americans, Rural Education, Education for the Homeless, School Safety (Gun-Free schools), Monitoring and Compliance and Federal Accountability Programs. The bill also negates the Nutritional Act of 2012 (No Hungry Kids Act) which provides nutritional standards in school breakfast and lunch. The bill has no wording whatsoever protecting special needs kids, no mention of IDEA and FAPE. Some things the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) of 1965 does for Children with Disabilities includes; ensuring access to the general education curriculum, giving access to accommodations on assessments, confirming concepts of Universal Design for Learning, includes provisions that require local education agencies to provide evidence-based interventions in schools with consistently underperforming subgroups, and requires states in Title I plans to address how they will improve conditions for learning including reducing incidents of bullying and harassment in schools, overuse of discipline practices and reduce the use of aversive behavioral interventions (such as restraints and seclusion). The results of the vote on this act will have an extremely remarkable affect on public education, hopefully they will not be too detrimental.
Source:
King, Steve. "Text - H.R.610 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): To Distribute Federal Funds for Elementary and Secondary Education in the Form of Vouchers for Eligible Students and to Repeal a Certain Rule Relating to Nutrition Standards in Schools." Congress.gov. N.p., 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.
As someone who deeply cares about the equal education opportunities for children in this country, there are some notable pieces of this bill that cannot be discredited. In short, parts that state: "To be eligible to receive a block grant, a state must: (1) comply with education voucher program requirements, and (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect to enroll their child in any public or private elementary or secondary school in the state or to home-school their child." Though there are many deterring factors of this bill, it is nice to know that there are still former concepts being protected by legal right.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of this bill that many people are not mentioning is that impact it plays on school-provided food. This bill repeals a former rule that upholds certain nutritional standards; those that require certain amounts of fresh food, sodium levels, whole-grains, et cetera. Through repealing such rule, we are beginning to lower the already-poor standard of nutrition within public school meals. It is important for kids to be provided an education and EXAMPLE of how to properly eat and care for their body. In another sense, this also affects the children whose parents rely on them obtaining their meals from school.
Unfortunately, this bill has a lot of potential to disrupt the education system this country has taken much time to build. With that being said, I also have not personally witnessed its direct impacts so I do not want to shoot down the House's attempts to progress a national public school system--only time will tell.