Evaluating the Student Success Act

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IN THIS EDITION

What to Watch A-PLUS: a conservative alternative to No Child Left Behind. Number of the Week A-PLUS uses 13 pages to free states from thousands of pages of regulation. Quote of the Week County Executive David Craig explains why Common Core will never work. Don't Miss Rapper Pitbull speaks in favor of charter schools.

Evaluating Education Policy in the Student Success Act By Lindsey Burke The House will debate the Student Success Act over the next week, which provides a few good first steps toward limiting burdensome federal intervention in education. But in its current form, the proposal has some serious policy limitations. On the positive side, the bill would eliminate some of the most onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), such as Adequate Yearly Progress, which mandates universal student proficiency; the Highly Qualified Teacher provision, which requires prospective teachers to secure paperwork certification that has little to no relevance to classroom performance; and maintenance-of-effort regulations that require states to spend money to access federal dollars. ON THE OTHER HAND... >> What To Watch A-PLUS: A Conservative Alternative to NCLB "The Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act (A-PLUS) would allow states to completely opt out of the programs that fall under NCLB and empower state and local leaders to direct funding to their most pressing education needs. Specifically, A-PLUS would send funding under NCLB back to states in the form of block grants, and states would then be able to direct that funding to any education purpose under state law.” See the full article, from The Foundry. Student Loans Will Add $95 Billion to a $1 Trillion Student-Loan Debt The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated taxpayer losses on student loans at $95 billion over the next decade, with student-loan debt currently at $1 trillion. See the full article, from The Wall Street Journal.

Number of the Week 13 Freeing states from 600 pages of No Child Left Behind and thousands of pages of regulations, in 13 pages, the A-Plus Act offers a conservative plan for limiting federal intervention in education. A better alternative to education policy restores decision making to those closest to the student. See: The Foundry's "A-PLUS: A Conservative Alternative to NCLB” Quote of the Week “Common Core is a backdoor way of nationalizing education, one based on a notion that children are to be churned out of schools on conveyor belts and into the workforce. It will never work." -David Craig, County Executive of Harford County, Maryland

Don’t Miss Rapper Pitbull Speaks in Favor of Charter Schools Last week, Rapper Pitbull told the National Charter Schools Conference audience that he is convinced charter schools will “revolutionize education in America”.

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