AFT Testifies on Education Department’s ESSA Draft Rules

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten today argued that the U.S. Department of Education’s draft fiscal accountability rules concerning the Every Student Succeeds Act are counterproductive and violate the law.

Weingarten testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on draft regulations involving federal education funding for needy students that are supposed to be used to supplement, not supplant, state and local dollars.

“The pursuit of equity and excellence for our children is part of the AFT’s DNA,” Weingarten said, noting there are several ways to accomplish this and that she would like a discussion on “leveling up” spending, not “leveling down.”

“ESSA continues important equity safeguards so states can’t deny disadvantaged children the additional funding that the federal government has provided to level the playing field,” she said. “Unfortunately, in its first regulatory action on the proposed supplement-not-supplant rules, the Education Department demonstrated that it was neither listening to stakeholders nor following the framework of the legislation.”

She added: “It has the potential for some schools having to give up resources, services or staff in order for others to gain. That’s neither equitable nor sensible,” she said.

Weingarten expressed great concern that the department’s level of prescription, which strays from the law’s prohibitions against overreaching, could be used for the upcoming regulations on school accountability.

“The promise of ESSA lies in the opportunity for states, with broad stakeholder input, to create robust accountability systems that redefine how to measure learning to be more about what learning really is—not simply math and reading test scores,” she testified.