State Legislators Are Put To Test on Education Reform

December 15, 2009

The following information was released by the National Conference of State Legislatures:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan commended legislators for being the glue and institutional memory that helps keep public schools and public universities running. But he challenged lawmakers to examine their own education legislation to see where there is room for improvement and reform.

Secretary Duncan spoke to state legislators at the National Co nference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Fall Forum in San Diego, Calif. Legislators from across the country attended the three-day meeting that focused on tough issues such as education and health care reform, state budgets and international trade.

"You are serving at a time when many states are facing the greatest fiscal problems since the Depression and most states made a bipartisan effort to hold the line on cuts to education budgets and I appreciate that so much," said Secretary Duncan.

The secretary pointed out that many successful reforms were the brain-child of state legislatures. As far back as the 1980s, states were in the vanguard of the academic standards movement. When state supreme courts struck down school finance systems as unconstitutional, state legislatures like Kentucky’s responded by enacting new systems. In the 1990s, state legislatures pressed for the creation of state-funded preschool programs, which are now active in 38 states. Duncan applauded home-grown state education initiatives, including Maryland’s effort to help lead the way on school funding and finance. But he challenged lawmakers to go further.

"If state lawmakers want to be the architects of reform today, they have to think even more ambitiously, especially when it comes to our neediest students, lowest performing schools and our most underserved communities," said Duncan. "The unfortunate truth is our current laws currently erect too many barriers to real reform."

Duncan said some legislatures did not go far enough to give local school district the tools educators need to succeed. Many of the limitations teachers and school districts face Duncan said is due to antiquated state laws. He asked lawmakers to rethink and rewrite hundreds of pages of state code that limits the ability of districts to succeed in promoting student learning, especially in the lowest performing schools.

Specifically, Duncan called on legislators to rewrite state laws that:

Ensure that studentsespecially disadvantaged studentsare taught by an effective teacher and that all policies related to the teaching profession promote effective teaching;

Offer high-quality alternative certification routes to becoming teachers for military veterans and career changers;

Give districts the ability to increase learning time by extending the school day or school year; and

Expand the number of charter schools and to increase accountability so bad charter schools are shut down.

"Education is very much a state and local responsibility," Duncan said. "And the truth is that state lawmakers must play a vital role in improving our schools, quite apart from any federal initiatives and incentives."

Some of those incentives include common education standards among all 50 states, ARRA money and the Obama administration’s Race to the Top, a national competition that will award grants in two phases starting next year. Duncan says he is pleased with states responses to Race to the Top and warns it will be competitive.

"Never have states and districts had the opportunity to gain support for great reforms at the local level, he said."

Duncan joined the president’s cabinet earlier this year after serving seven years as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools. Prior to his appointment by Mayor Richard Daley to lead Chicago Public Schools, Duncan ran a nonprofit education foundation. He gradated from Harvard and was an academic all-American basketball player. He played professional basketball in Australia.

NCSL is a bipartisan organiz ation that serves the legislators and staffs of the states, commonwealths and territories. It provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues and is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of the states in the American federal system.