It's likely to be a struggle to keep federal programs in place, much less increase them.Īt least for now, you have the "sequester" cuts resulting from the absence of normal decision making in Congress. President Barack Obama is promoting a new emphasis on preschool education, but, without billions of dollars to put behind it, it isn't likely to bring much change. Budget deadlocks in Congress may or may not be resolved sometime, but what will follow is almost sure to be a period without big-budget education initiatives. The economic stimulus money came and went.Īnd, most important at the federal level, the notion of buying reform has all but come to a halt. Department of Education for new, much different approaches that, while having common elements, put more emphasis on work outside of Washington. The law's increasingly out-of-date efforts are being replaced with state-by-state "waivers" from the U.S. Congressional deadlock means the reworking of the No Child Left Behind system that Congress set for 2007 still hasn't happened. The pendulum has swung toward the states.
#GRIDLOCK DEADLOCK DEFINITION FULL#
No Child Left Behind, the federal education law, was shaping school realities from coast to coast federal economic stimulus money was playing a big role in schools the influential federal "Race to the Top" grants program was in full swing and nationwide learning standards and testing regimens were emerging. If I were writing this in, say, 2010, I would describe how the decision-making was increasingly national. What is new is how the balance of power between Washington and the states has shifted. As education moved up the priority list, the influence of Washington and Madison increased. Twenty-five years ago or so, that wasn't nearly so true, especially in a places such as Wisconsin, which was (and still says it is) a "local-control" state for schools. It isn't news that the capitals of the nation and state are the places to turn to if you want to get handles on what is going on in local education. In reality, he said, things were cloudier than before.īut the lack of clarity on what lies ahead only underscores how important signals from Madison and Washington are. Thornton said the meeting of the board's budget committee had been postponed a week in the hope there would be more clarity (and maybe better news) by the time the board sat down. What he regretted - and a statewide roster of public school officials would agree - is that the news coming out of Washington and Madison when it comes to education funding is filled with uncertainty, confusion, and, from their standpoint, ill tidings. Optimism is such a core impulse for Milwaukee School Superintendent Gregory Thornton that he began to tell School Board members at a meeting Thursday he was pleased to inform them of something - and then corrected himself to say he regretted to inform them.
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