The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel – Alan J. Borsuk
“One of my grandchildren loves connect the dots games, the more elaborate the better. One that would be too easy, in his mind, would connect the dots between decision-making at the national level with his own classroom and the classrooms of pretty much every child in America. It’s been abundantly clear, especially since the federal No Child Left Behind law was launched in 2002, that there’s not a trickle-down effect from the national level to local schools — it’s more like a waterfall. Which means that, while this column focuses generally on Milwaukee area and Wisconsin-wide education, it’s time to look at what’s coming at us from above. Let me summarize a few items: A new federal education law: There was a time when bipartisan agreement was fairly common on education. No Child Left Behind passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. (Today’s trivia: One of the key players was John Boehner, the outgoing Republican House speaker.) That was then. The law was supposed to be redone (reauthorized, in congressional parlance) in 2007. That’s eight years ago. Still hasn’t happened. This year, there was serious action for the first time — the Senate and House each passed education bills. The Senate version would reduce the federal role in education but keep things like annual standardized tests in reading and math nationwide. The House version would reduce the federal role even more, still keeping annual testing. Both versions would keep the feds from doing much about, say, schools with large numbers of failing students.”(more)