Federal Legislative Report 114-3

Distributed via Email: April 14, 2015

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT (ESEA/NCLB) REAUTHORIZATION

The Senate introduced a bipartisan reauthorization of ESEA last week called The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015.   Key components are:

• Requires states to use assessments in their accountability systems, but allows states to determine the weight of the tests;
• Maintains the federally required two tests in reading and math per child per year in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school, as well as science tests given three times between grades 3 and 12;
• Includes federal grants to states and school districts to help improve low performing schools that are identified by the state accountability systems;
• Strengthens state and local control regarding accountability systems;
• Supports a state-level cap of one-percent on students with the most significant cognitive disabilities tested on the alternate academic achievement standards;
• Maintains reporting of disaggregated data;
• Provides resources to states and school districts to implement various activities to support teachers, principals, and other educators;
• Allows, but does not require, states to develop and implement teacher evaluation systems;
• Requires states to measure school districts’ progress with English learners, but also provides incentives to states and school districts to implement policies and practices that will lead to significant improvements in the instruction of English learners;
• Requires community-based needs assessments that take into account measures or indicators of school quality, climate and safety, discipline, and additional risk factors in the community in order to better target funding based on district-level needs;
• Combines two existing charter school programs into one consisting of several grant competitions. Also provides incentives for states to adopt stronger charter school authorizing practices;
• Maintains Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements; and
• Ensures that federal funds may be used for early education programs.

The legislation is supposed to be heard in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this week.   The House’s version of ESEA reauthorization passed out of the House Education and the Workforce Committee in mid-February and could be slated for a hearing on the House floor at any time.

FISCAL YEAR 2016 (FY16) BUDGET

During the last week of March, the House and Senate debated their respective versions of a FY16 budget resolution. Both chambers passed the measures, largely along party lines. The measures, H.Con.Res. 27 and S.Con.Res. 11, would include across-the-board budget cuts to federal programs through sequestration. However, the Senate did approve Amendment No. 1047, sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), to address the sequester. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Angus King (I-ME) co-sponsored the measure which calls for replacing sequester cuts in defense and non-defense accounts with a balanced package of changes in mandatory programs, targeted discretionary cuts and cuts in tax expenditures. Such a package would be similar to the Bipartisan Budget Act that provided a two-year reprieve from the sequester in 2013. This amendment creates a pathway for legislation addressing the sequester cuts to be considered on the Senate floor. While the sequester was largely reversed in Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015, the cuts are scheduled to resume in FY16, unless Congress intervenes.

While the House and Senate budget resolutions are non-binding and do not include specific funding levels for education programs, they do include provisions that would provide policy and guidance to various committees, including those with jurisdiction over education and school district operations. Essentially, a final budget resolution would set targets for other congressional committees that can propose legislation directly providing or changing spending and taxes.   For example, the House and Senate debated amendments covering several areas including sequestration, as noted above, as well as early education programs, student privacy, and Common Core standards.

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