With NCLB’s 10 year anniversary, the Obama administration is looking for a way out. Reauthorization would cause an outcry from teachers and administrators, so instead the federal government has offered a waiver program:
The waiver plan has drawn a critical response from California state schools chief Tom Torlakson, whose office estimates that complying with the waiver requirements would cost his state at least $2 billion over time. Some of the costs would come in speeding up the state’s implementation of the common-core standards and developing strategies to improve struggling schools, including teacher professional development.
States should be wary about this plan because it saves the federal government money of the necessitated “take over” that is a part of NCLB if a school is labeled “failing” for consecutive years.
Surprisingly, with these deadlines looming, education has been sorely missing from the nominee debates.