Obama education plan faces bipartisan criticism; lawmakers say it's not a good fit for rural schools

As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Obama administration's proposals for turning around underperforming schools are drawing the ire of lawmakers who say the ideas don'ty fit rural schools. "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the four models for intervening in perennially foundering schools spelled out in the U.S. Department of Education’s regulations for the $3.5 billion School Improvement Grant program are inflexible, particularly for schools in isolated, rural areas, and don’t put enough emphasis on factors such as the need for community and parental involvement," Alyson Klein of Education Week reports.

"A fresh start doesn’t mean firing all the teachers and only hiring back an arbitrary number," California Democratic Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, told Klein. "You can find some of the best teachers in the worst-performing schools, but they are stuck in a system that isn’t supporting them." Wyoming Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi voiced concern for the plans' application to rural schools at a hearing earlier this spring: "I am very concerned that requiring school districts to use one of the four school turnaround models for schools identified for school improvement will adversely impact rural and frontier schools," he said. "Some flexibility needs to be given to rural and frontier schools that simply cannot meet these strict federal requirements."

"Miller’s critique of the administration’s turnaround strategy is especially significant because it is difficult for critics to accuse him of pandering to the teachers’ unions, who also have concerns about the models, particularly the emphasis on removing staff," Klein writes. "The education committee chairman has bucked the unions on a range of issues, including merit pay and the need to link student data with teacher effectiveness." (Read more)