To: ALL LEAGUES for Your Program Planning
PROPOSED 2009-2011 LWV US STUDY OF THE ROLE OF
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION
PROPOSAL: To study the role of the federal government in public education, with a focus on
(1) the basic goals of public education, (2) the role of the federal government in education
policy-making, (3) the relationship between national, state, and local levels of education
governance, including funding, and (4) the development of common standards.
PURPOSE: To establish national League positions that would enable the League of Women
Voters to
- review, consider, evaluate and advocate for or against federal education legislation; to
- advocate on issues related to what the federal role in public education should be; and to
- join in coalition with other national organizations that speak out on issues of public
education.
LEAGUE STATUS QUO: Currently, LWV US addresses education issues only as they are
covered by other national Social Policy positions, regarding fairness, and access to equal
opportunity for women, minorities and for classes of students requiring special protection or
resources--poor children, special needs children, English learners (EL), and others currently
denied equal educational opportunity. As education has historically been the responsibility of
the individual states and school districts, studying and acting on education issues has been left to
Leagues within these jurisdictions. A table summarizing current state League education positions
can be found at http://www.sclaraco.ca.lwvnet.org.
BACKGROUND: The federal government is already heavily involved in funding, and
establishing policy for all school districts receiving federal dollars. The Defense of Education
Act of 1958 broke a long-standing taboo against direct federal aid to education.
Before the current economic crunch, national direct investment averaged about 10% of state level
K-12 education budgets across a wide range of programs, from Head Start and reduced price
school lunches to support for career education, homeless children, foster children and
special education students. The recently reauthorized Higher Education Act addresses
opportunities for many more students to afford college.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, originally passed in 1965, (known in its 2002
renewal as No Child Left Behind) is itself currently undergoing major restructuring before it can
be reauthorized. Data on the powerful effect of pre-school learning has also brought federal
initiatives to expand educational opportunities for very young children.
Evidence from all over the country reveals that resources and levels of support are very
unequally distributed among the states, within states and school districts. Everywhere,
ineffective, and/or under-funded schools have been concentrated in neighborhoods with large
populations of poor, and non-English speaking immigrants. Dropout rates averaging 25-30%
across a state grow to more than 50% in these neighborhoods.
An overarching concern with the quality and amount of learning achieved by our high school
graduates has focused attention on the misalignment of existing high-school graduation
requirements and the preparation students will need to succeed in the workplace and postsecondary
education. Education organizations representing education professionals, elected
officials and private-sector executives have taken on the voluntary challenge of creating a set of
national educational standards or guidelines to be used by states to replace the current individual
state standards.
RATIONALE: Across the country, education has been caught in the perfect storm of our
current economic crisis. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their health insurance and their
savings all at the same time. The recession has compounded the widespread misery by severely
reducing state and local revenues.
Funding for public education, which at one time came mostly from local property taxes (and still
does in many localities), is now underwritten in most parts of the country by state income and
sales taxes. When unemployment is high, tax revenue from these sources plummet.
Even as educational resources at the state and local level have shrunk, observers pointing to the
weak performance of U.S. students in standard international tests, are calling for millions more
college graduates to fill the professional positions being vacated by retiring Baby Boomers if we
are to retain our standing in the global economy.
The new administration's stimulus package (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or
ARRA) is attempting to address the present contractions in state and local government revenues
with large infusions of money attached to conditions requiring greater accountability. To help
states sustain school budgets, $55 billion has been allocated for education. Far more than in the
past, the federal government is becoming involved in making policy as well as funding programs
that will affect state and local school operations directly.
The League's basic, long-standing commitment to social policy issues such as children and
families, equality of opportunity, and good government underscores the need to involve
ourselves with how these far-reaching changes in education will be shaped at the national level.
Currently we have very little by way of relevant positions that enable us to speak directly to
federal policy decisions affecting public schools. While there are many other constituent groups
addressing education, we are uniquely positioned to advocate with a national public education
position that will not be biased toward one stakeholder or another.
COST: We believe that most of the work of a study committee can be conducted like the
immigration study--with online discussions and reporting, and conference calls. We estimate the
cost of this two-year study to approximate the cost of the immigration study--mainly LWVUS
staff time--for $30,000 to $35,000.
Thank you for your consideration.
Doris Petersen, Nan Prince and Nancy Rogers, Palo Alto; Ellen Wheeler, Los Altos/Mountain
View; Helene Lecar, Berkeley/Albany; Joanne Leavitt, Santa Monica
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League of Women Voters of Palo Alto, California. All rights reserved.
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