Amidst various players like the teachers鈥� unions looking to influence the Every Student Succeeds Act at the state level, a group led former Secretary of Education William Bennett is seeking to make its mark.
Conservative Leaders for Education, which formed last July to push for accountability, high academic standards, local control, and school choice under ESSA, officially announced Monday it had signed up four state lawmakers and a state school board as new members in five new states: Alabama, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
The five new members of the organization are:
- Colorado Senator Owen Hill
- Alabama Board Rep. Mary Scott Hunter
- Ohio Senator Peggy Lehner
- Wisconsin Senator Luther Olsen
- Nevada Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury
All of them are Republicans. And all, except for Hunter, are leaders of their respective legislative education committees. Last July, the group indicated that they had signed up lawmakers from all these states, except Nevada, but didn鈥檛 name names.
During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, our own Lisa Stark moderated a panel discussion about early education in which Lehner of Ohio participated.
In an interview, Bennett, the group鈥檚 chairman, said the group wouldn鈥檛 be developing model legislation. But he said the participating lawmakers would share bills they are working on, as well as thoughts on which policy approaches might work well in their states and which ones might run into problems. Conservative Leaders for Education, he said, is looking for 鈥渁gents of policy change鈥� in statehouses when it comes to ESSA.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going about this with all deliberate speed. We鈥檙e being very careful about the people we鈥檙e selecting,鈥� said Bennett, who served as President Ronald Reagan鈥檚 education secretary. 鈥淭hese are all people that are very committed to the issues.鈥�
Bennett said he had discussed the group鈥檚 work with several well-known players in the conservative K-12 policy world, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Thomas B. Fordham President Chester E. 鈥淐hecker鈥� Finn, and Center for Education reform founder Jeanne Allen. None of those people, however, are formally involved with Conservative Leaders for Education at this point, Bennett said.
The group鈥檚 expansion represents the jockeying going on to shape how states approach school improvement, transparency, and accountability under the law. Remember, ESSA gives state lawmakers significantly more power over those decisions than they鈥檝e had in recent years. Back in July, Bennett said he was worried that not only do Democrats talk like they 鈥渙wn鈥� ESSA, 鈥渋n many ways, they have owned it.鈥�
As we reported just over a week ago, the National Education Association is pushing its members hard to make sure states don鈥檛 just make a few tweaks under ESSA and call it a day. And they鈥檙e praising states that have adopted a 鈥渄ashboard鈥� approach to accountability that doesn鈥檛 require a single, summative rating for schools. (That approach might not get the approval of the U.S. Department of Education, however.) So it鈥檚 easy to find contrasts between the NEA and Bennett鈥檚 groups in terms of ESSA priorities.
You can watch members of the Conservative Leaders for Education discuss their views on education and ESSA below: