President Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have made local control a major focus of their statements on K-12. And Trump underscored that priority in his recent executive order calling on DeVos to take a hard look at where the federal government has overreached on K-12 education.
The order directs DeVos to review, tweak, and even repeal regulations and guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education recently, as well as identify places where the federal government has overstepped its legal authority.
Recently, 鈥渢oo many in Washington have advanced top-down mandates that take away autonomy and limit the options available to educators, administrators, and parents,鈥� said Rob Goad, a senior Education Department aide, on a call with reporters last month. The executive order puts 鈥渁n end to this overreach, ensuring that states and localities are free to make educational decisions,鈥� he added.
In response to the executive order, a task force at the department, led by Robert Eitel, a senior adviser to the secretary, will look at all the K-12 regulations put out by prior administrations and decide which step on local control, Goad said. After 300 days, the department is supposed to release a report on its findings.
Reinforcing the Message
DeVos doesn鈥檛 need an executive order鈥攐r a task force鈥攖o strike down regulations or rescind guidance put out by previous administrations. She can already delay or decline to enforce regulations, or change guidance.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 create any new authority,鈥� said Reg Leichty, a founder and partner at Foresight Law + Policy. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 change what we knew to be the position of the president. It might add some formality to the work that the secretary and her team already plan to do. It鈥檚 a formal way to express their policy that the federal role should be smaller.鈥�
Goad acknowledged as much in his call with reporters to discuss the April 26 order, confirming that DeVos was indeed already empowered to examine, revise, and rescind rules and regulations before the order. And already, Congress has scrapped the Obama administration鈥檚 regulations on accountability and teacher preparation.
The executive order seems to be a not-so-veiled shot at President Barack Obama鈥檚 administration, which used $4 billion in Race to the Top funding to entice states to adopt the Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluations using student test scores, and more. The Education Department under Obama also offered states waivers from many mandates of the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act, in exchange for adopting other policies, such as using dramatic strategies to turn around low-performing schools.
But such activities are already prohibited by the Every Student Succeeds Act. ESSA, which Obama signed in 2015 to replace the NCLB law, is designed to reduce the federal role in K-12 in part by prohibiting the education secretary from using money or flexibility to influence states鈥� standards, teacher evaluations, and school turnaround strategies. In fact, because of ESSA and other federal laws that predate it, Trump can鈥檛 fulfill his campaign promise to get rid of the common core, which remains in place in more than 35 states and the District of Columbia.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers, was quick to seize on the idea that the executive order won鈥檛 make much of a difference.
鈥淩ather than another executive order, perhaps the president and DeVos need to read the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act, as well as laws covering the civil rights and privacy of students, and then listen to stakeholders, including educators and parents,鈥� Weingarten said.
鈥楥hanges Absolutely Nothing鈥�
The Democratic National Committee was even more blunt, saying Trump was essentially signing an empty order to chalk up another accomplishment for his first 100 days in office, a milestone he passed late last month.
This executive order 鈥渃hanges absolutely nothing,鈥� said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the DNC. 鈥淭rump isn鈥檛 signing it to actually improve education for American students, he is doing it to put a fake point on the board within his first 100 days because he doesn鈥檛 have any accomplishments of significance.鈥�
But Jeanne Allen, the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, a school choice advocacy organization, praised the executive order. 鈥淭he process,鈥� she said in a statement, 鈥渨ill also allow the public to learn just how much oversight occurs as a result of bureaucracy, not law, and pave the way for all schools to focus on outcomes, not compliance.鈥�
