The multi-front political and legal war over the direction of California’s immense public school system has a new front.
The state Board of Education – and inferentially, Gov. Jerry Brown and the education establishment – want to take a minimalist approach to complying with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Civil rights and education reform groups don’t like it. They had hoped that compliance with the federal law governing accountability for academic achievement, particularly among poor and non-white students, would beef up what they say is weak oversight by the state.
Under the law, passed late in the Barack Obama presidency but now enforced by Donald Trump’s regime, the state is supposed to tell Washington how it will spend $2.5 billion in federal funds to improve outcomes for poor kids who make up the majority of California’s six-plus million public school students.
The plan being readied for adoption by the school board would give the feds minimal information, basically just filling in the blanks as required but offering little detail. State officials say they are wary of giving more specifics because they don’t know yet how Trump’s Department of Education will enforce the new law.
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