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April 15, 2001
Meet the Bush Education Agenda's Key Players
By Ilene Rosenthal
T & L reports on Bushıs just-released education agenda and visits the White House to talk to the planıs top architects.
Soon after being sworn in as the 43rd president, George W. Bush published his principles for improving education in a document entitled "No Child Left Behind." Central to this blueprint, which remains critical of what it terms the "program for every problem" approach taken by the last administration, is a new focus on both freedom and accountability at the state level.
Bush believes that federal monies must be linked to specific performance goals and tied to results. He advocates dividing federal funding into seven major "silos":(1) improving the academic performance of disadvantaged students; (2) boosting teacher quality; (3) moving limited English proficient students to English fluency; (4) promoting informed parental choice and innovative programs; (5) encouraging safe schools for the 21st century; (6) increasing funding for Impact Aid (for children of military personnel and Native Americans); and (7) encouraging freedom and accountability.
If Bush's agenda passes, states will be given much greater latitude than they presently have in how they accomplish these goals, but will also be held accountable for producing results.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, legislation that funds over $14 billion per year of education reform efforts, is up for reauthorization this year, and it's moving on a fast track. Here, we interview the authors of "No Child Left Behind," who will be carrying the Bush education agenda to Capitol Hill as the ESEA moves forward: Margaret LaMontagne, the assistant to the president for domestic policy, and Sandy Kress, senior education advisor.
Margaret LaMontagne
"Education chose me," declares Margaret LaMontagne when asked how she landed in education policy. After working for both Democrats and Republicans in the Texas legislature during the 1980s, LaMontagne found her niche in education."It's not only the most important thing that a state does," she says, "but also the most optimistic part of social policy."
LaMontagne handled education policy for Texas Governors Bill Clements and George W. Bush, worked for the Texas Association of School Boards for six years, and has been helping Bush fashion his education policy agenda since 1994.
LaMontagne told Technology & Learning that one of her primary goals is to bring about a change in the way the federal role in education is viewed. Currently, federal monies get tied up in procedural matters that keep it from being put to the highest and best use. She hopes to move Washington from a "process" mentality to a "results" mentality through the increased autonomy states will have in spending federal dollars.
In contrast to the Clinton administration's focus on technology in schools as an end in itself (on the premise that students must be able to use technology if they are to compete in the global economy), LaMontagne sees technology as an "input" rather than a "result." Although the president's proposal does not create a separate "silo" for technology (no funds are specifically earmarked for technology spending), states may still choose to implement technology to reach their education goals-or not.
LaMontagne stresses that the president is committed to increasing federal funds for education and targeting the neediest kids. But the states, and not the federal government, must develop accountability standards. Should the states fail to act responsibly in educating the children most in need, the federal government would have to determine appropriate consequences.
Sandy Kress
Sandy Kress is an attorney who has taken leave from his firm to help the president carry out his education agenda. An active member of the Democratic Party, Kress, at first blush, might seem an unlikely choice for this key position. But politics aside, Kress says that he and Bush share a vision for education reform and a passion for improving children's lives.
Kress worked with Bush on education issues throughout the last decade in his capacity as president of the Dallas School Board and as chair of the Education and Economic Policy Center-the state-funded research panel that developed the accountability plan that was adopted in Texas and is now at the heart of Bush's federal agenda. Although the two are of different political parties, Kress reports being impressed by how serious Bush was about education and accountability.
Kress tells us he currently spends 14-hour days negotiating with members of Congress to make sure the ESEA legislation now up for reauthorization embodies the Bush agenda. He says he is encouraged by the supportive response from many members of Congress and is hopeful that a new ESEA will be signed into law by the time school begins next year.
Although Kress expects to see a discrete chapter for technology spending in the new ESEA, he anti-cipates that technology grants will be consolidated and distributed by formula to states rather than broken down into specific programs as they have been in the past eight years. The Senior Education Advisor is concerned with what he sees as a lack of effort to measure the "value added" from technology, despite the billions of dollars spent. While it remains an open issue as to whether consolidated federal funds will flow to the state governors, the state education agencies, or the local education agencies (district level), what we do know is that states will ultimately be responsible for formulating technology policies that foster learning objectives.
Ilene Rosenthal is president of New Image Media, LLC, an educational consulting company specializing in government affairs.
An Action Item on the issue of technology in the Bush administration's education agenda.
Educators concerned with the lack of a discrete chapter for technology funding in the Bush administration's education agenda may e-mail their congressional representatives with testimonials of ways in which technology has enabled their schools and districts. Go to the National Education Association Web site and look under Quick Clicks; click on "Legislative Action" and then "E-Mail Congress" to search for your representative by ZIP code.
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