Heritage Network
13 Ways the 113th Congress Can Improve Education in America
By Lindsey Burke and Rachel Sheffield 

Abstract 

Every year, taxpayers must send billions of dollars to Washington in order to fund federal education programs through the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies—which then redistribute that money back to individual states through a complex system of formula and competitive grant programs. The largest K–12 education law, No Child Left Behind, on its own has more than 60 competitive grant programs. Yet Washington’s efforts to improve American K–12 education have largely failed over the past half century, while saddling states and local school districts with a tremendous bureaucratic compliance burden. States and schools end up mired in red tape, their focus misdirected to Washington demands, not student needs. Federal education spending and intervention continue to grow, yet this intervention has merely weakened states’—and parents’—education decision-making authority. This Heritage Foundation Backgrounder contains 13 steps Congress should consider to improve American education and restore education decision-making authority to those closest to the students. 

There is no shortage of opportunities for Congress to reform federal education policy. Dozens of federal education programs are managed by well-intentioned yet disconnected bureaucrats in Washington, who are far removed from the needs of teachers and children in the classroom. 

Taxpayers, meanwhile, must send billions of dollars every year to Washington to fund federal education programs housed within the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies, which redistribute that money back to states through myriad formula and competitive grant programs. In order to ensure that their share of education funding is returned to them, states and schools must navigate a complex and time-consuming process of applying for grants, constantly monitoring changes in program regulations, and submitting proof to the Department of Education that they are meeting federal benchmarks. No Child Left Behind is the largest K–12 education law, and alone contains more than 60 competitive grant programs. Regulations on the law have been promulgated over 100 times in the decade following NCLB’s enactment.[1] 

It is no wonder that state education agencies have grown dramatically over the decades; the regulatory maze through which school districts must maneuver seems to grow more convoluted with every Congress. That maze diverts the attention of school leaders and teachers on whom the burden of complying with federal regulations falls, leaving them with less and less time to focus on their most important job: teaching. Federal intervention has failed to increase achievement outcomes over the past half century, yet has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, has grown bureaucracy, and has weakened states’ education decision-making authority. 

The Founders placed the important job of educating America’s children with states, localities, and most critically, parents. The Constitution does not mention the word “education,” even though its architects believed in its supreme importance. “I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man,” wrote Thomas Jefferson.[2] 

Conservatives in Congress and policymakers in general who want to restore excellence in education should work to trim the size, scope, and funding of the Department of Education. The reforms outlined below do just that, and provide first steps for returning education to states and school districts, creating an education system that is responsive to parents and fits the needs of children. 

Pre–K and Early Learning 

For decades, the federal government has funded early education and child care programs, and despite little to no impact on child outcomes, the Obama Administration and many on the left are attempting to expand such programs. Yet, policymakers must not attempt to replace the family in the important role of laying the building blocks for a child’s formal learning, and, rather than adding more programs, should reform current programs or eliminate those that are ineffective. 

1. Congress should recognize that parents and private preschool providers should be the first and second options for families, followed by state programs, when necessary. Policymakers should avoid any incentives to expand government preschool. In order to achieve excellence in early education, policymakers must abandon the presumption that government preschool is preferable to family care. Families are children’s first educators and government programs cannot replace the benefits that children receive from being raised in a stable, two-parent home. Federal and state policymakers interested in maintaining the role of families and civil society in providing early education and care for children should resist the latest push by the Obama Administration to expand federal preschool and child care. More government preschool is not the answer to helping America’s children succeed, and any efforts to expand federal preschool initiatives should be opposed. 

2. Excellence in early education requires cleaning up the labyrinth of existing federal preschool and day care programs, and eliminating ineffective programs. Since taking office, President Obama has called for increases in federal spending for early childhood education. The Obama Administration wants to establish a continuum of preschool services for children from birth through age five. As part of the President’s drive for a “cradle-to-career” government-controlled education system, in February the Administration proposed significantly increasing government spending on early childhood education and care. The President’s proposal consists of (1) new federal spending to establish a “cost-sharing” model with states to expand public preschool programs; (2) significant new spending on Early Head Start to serve infants, toddlers, and three-year-old children; (3) an effort to “grow” the federal Head Start program; and (4) an expansion of home visitation programs. The White House deems this its Preschool for All initiative.[3] 

Additionally… continued at link below 

3. Policymakers should base decisions about preschool funding and programs on empirical evidence, and reconsider the future of Head Start. Head Start is the largest of the federal government’s early childhood programs and has been funded by taxpayers for nearly five decades. Since Head Start began in 1965, the federal government has spent over $150 billion to fund it.[7] During 2011–2012 fiscal year, some 964,000 children were enrolled in the program.[8] 

However, the federal government’s own “gold standard” evaluations show that Head Start fails… continued at link below 

Elementary and Secondary Education 

Federal intervention in K–12 education has steadily increased over the past five decades. Yet such growth has failed to increase achievement outcomes, has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, has grown bureaucracy, and has weakened states’ education decision-making authority. Congress should reform current policies to restore educational authority to state and local leaders and to give parents greater control over their children’s education. 

4. To improve K–12 education, Congress should reject wholesale reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. From its enactment in 1965 as the education portion of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program, to its seventh reauthorization as No Child Left Behind in 2001, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has failed to achieve its original purpose of eliminating achievement gaps between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. Despite seven reauthorizations of a law designed to close achievement gaps and improve academic outcomes, an achievement gap persists between poor children and their wealthier counterparts, and between white students and their minority peers. Low-income 12th-graders, for example, read at the same level as non-poor eighth-graders.[11] Similarly, white eighth-graders score two points higher than black 12th graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend reading assessment. White eighth-graders are just one point behind Hispanic 12th-graders.[12] 

Instead of improving educational… continued at link below 

5. To better serve low-income children, Congress should allow states to make their Title I dollars portable. Title I of No Child Left Behind provides federal funding to states in order for the states to provide additional funds to low-income school districts. While the intent of Title I is to provide resources to low-income children, its design is “neither student-centered nor transparent. Instead, Title I funds are delivered through complex funding formulas created over decades of congressional policymaking.”[15] As researcher Susan Aud writes: 

The funding formulas used to determine each school district’s total Title I, Part A allocation are prohibitively complex… continued at link below 

6. Congress should eliminate and consolidate ineffective and duplicative programs. In all, the Department of Education operates more than 100 competitive and formula grant programs. In order to restore good constitutional governance in education, Congress should consolidate or eliminate the vast majority of programs operated by the Department, beginning with those that are duplicative and ineffective 

Several proposals were advanced in the 112th Congress to provide cross-program flexibility, and to eliminate duplicative or ineffective education programs… continued at link below 

7. Congress should provide relief to states and schools through the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act, creating an alternative to the Obama Administration’s strings-attached No Child Left Behind waivers. 

Federal policymakers should limit federal intervention in education by eliminating the majority of programs that fall under No Child Left Behind. At the same time, Congress should allow states to opt out of the many federal requirements associated with those programs, and to use those funds in a way that best meets the needs of local students. This approach is embodied in the A-PLUS Act… continued at link below 

8. Congress should prevent any new federal funding of national standards and assessments. 

Over the past four years, the Obama Administration has used a combination of carrots and sticks to prod states to adopt the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI). CCSSI is an effort to establish national education standards and tests to define what every child in public schools across the country will learn. The effort to nationalize standards and tests represents the most significant federal overreach into education in history, and poses a grave threat to educational freedom in America’s schools… continued at link below 

9. Congress should stop the education spending spree and allow for meaningful reform. In addition to eliminating existing ineffective and duplicative federal education programs, conservatives in Congress should oppose proposals by the Obama Administration to create new programs. Last year, as part of his “Education Blueprint”—a proposal to spend billions in taxpayer money on new federal education initiatives—President Obama proposed the following: (1) the RESPECT Project (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching), a new $5 billion competitive grant program allocating federal funding to states to compensate effective teachers; (2) the Keeping Educators in the Classroom proposal, which would create a new $25 billion program to “avoid harmful layoffs”; and (3) an additional $30 billion in new spending for “modernizing America’s schools.”[20] 

If the past four years are any indication… continued at link below 

10. Congress should restore dollars and decision making to those closest to the student by reducing the size and scope of the Department of Education. Federal education spending has increased significantly since President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education in 1979. Since then, funding for the Department of Education has more than doubled. Today, the Education Department has the third-largest discretionary budget of any federal agency, trailing only the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services… continued at link below 

11. To better serve special needs children, Congress should allow states to make Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding portable. IDEA provides federal funds to children with special needs. Like Title I, the students the law was designed to help would be better served by having control over their share of IDEA funding, being allowed to take their IDEA funds to any school of their choice… continued at link below 

12. Congress should expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to ensure that low-income children in the nation’s capital have access to schools that meet their unique learning needs. Since 2004, children in the nation’s capital have had access to vouchers to attend a private school of choice. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (D.C. OSP) was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2004 and has provided scholarships to approximately 5,000 students since then.[24] In a city with a chronically underperforming public school system, the D.C. OSP has been a lifeline for low-income children to attend a private school that meets their learning needs. Congressionally mandated evaluations of the D.C. OSP found that students who used a voucher to attend a private school were 21 percentage points more likely to graduate high school than their non-scholarship peers. Moreover, at around $8,500, the vouchers are less than half the more than $18,000 spent per pupil in the D.C. public school system… continued at link below 

13. Congress should expand Coverdell and 529 Education Savings Accounts to help families invest in education. The momentum for school choice has increased substantially over the past few years. In 2011, states passed a record number of school-choice policies to create or expand educational opportunities for K–12 students.[25] Today, 21 states and Washington, D.C., offer some type of private school option to families. States and localities have, appropriately, been at the forefront of this movement… continued at link below 

Conclusion: Go Bold on Reform 

The 113th Congress has the opportunity to dramatically reshape federal education policy in a way that re-establishes education decision making with states and schools, empowers parents, and restores excellence in education. Congress has the opportunity to make education funding more student centered; to ensure funding for special needs and low-income children actually serves those children, instead of feeding the bureaucracy. Congress has the opportunity to reform federal education programs in a way that cuts costs, saving taxpayers money while making spending more effective. To achieve these goals, the 113th Congress should: 

Recognize that parents, and then private preschool providers, should be the first option for families, followed by state programs, when necessary. Avoid any incentives to expand government preschool… 

Read the complete report at Heritage Network