The Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 has been reported to
the Senate from the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Without hearings or
a written report, the
Committee has reported out a bill that would make all fifty states
eligible to apply for blanket
authority to waive most of the provisions of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act
("ESEA") and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act ("Perkins").
We ask you to
support a motion to recommit the bill to the committee for hearings and
full consideration of the
consequences of the bill.
We believe that the problems with this bill have been largely
unrecognized, and we ask you to
consider the following:
- Taking this enormous step essentially block grants ESEA and Perkins.
With only a few exceptions, states would be allowed to take the money,
but then waive away, for themselves, the local districts, and schools,
the basic conditions and the national concerns for which they received
the funds.
- The Senate should move toward more public accountability for the use
of federal funds rather than less, as allowed under Ed-Flex.
- The Senate should consider Ed-Flex in the context of ESEA
reauthorization. The Senate will look closely at accountability and
implementation under Title I and other programs affected by Ed-Flex
waiver powers during reauthorization. It is not clear why the Senate
should give states such broad authority to waive the very provisions it
carefully crafts.
- It is unclear why states need this extraordinarily broad authority
to waive federal programmatic requirements in order to better implement
school reform. ESEA and Perkins are already very flexible pieces of
legislation. In fact, when regulatory and administrative barriers are
identified, they typically turn out to be state or local in origin, not
federal. There should be a discussion that pinpoints the specific
federal requirements that are getting in the way and analyzes how to
address those barriers in a focused way.
- The bill contains no assurances that states will not waive key
programmatic requirements of the law. The bill would allow states to
waive key accountability and quality provisions and to dilute and divert
funds away from poor schools.
- A November 1998 report from the General Accounting Office found that
federal oversight under the existing Ed-Flex demonstration project
provides limited information on program results. The report raised
serious concerns about the potential that states might use their waiver
authority in ways that are inconsistent with the purposes of the
underlying federal programs and questioned the capacity of the
Department to address such issues. It is questionable that a federal
agency would be able to meet the even greater challenge of closely
monitoring expansion of the program to avoid abuses and to ensure that
waivers will be tailored to ease demonstrable administrative burdens
while strengthening implementation of the core programmatic
requirements.
- There have been no hearings on these and other issues. Ed-Flex
expansion has been pressed through very quickly.
We urge you to recommit this bill for consideration of its impact and of
the intersection between
Ed-Flex and ESEA reauthorization. Please feel free to contact Christine
Stoneman at 202/986-
3000 should you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Advocates for Children of New York, Inc.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
ASPIRA Association
Center for Community Change
The Center for Law and Education
Cuban American National Council
Education Law Center of Pennsylvania
The Education Trust
The Epilepsy Foundation
MANA, A National Latina Organization
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Migrant Legal Action Program
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
National Association for Migrant Education
National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest)
National Coalition of Education Activists
National Coalition of Title I/Chapter I Parents
National Council of La Raza
National Latino Children's Institute
National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
OMB Watch
Public Education Network
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey (SPAN)
TASH-Disability Advocacy Worldwide
United Cerebral Palsy Associations