The Republican Congress is wasting no time in undoing many of the actions taken by the Obama administration. They are planning to use a provision called the Congressional Review Act, which allows them to look at, and possibly overturn, any rule issued by the Executive Branch. In the current case, Congress can review Executive Orders going all the way back to May of 2016.
While it is usually difficult to pass a rule repeal through a CRA, in the current case it will certainly be easier than usual. The CRA has to be passed in both houses, and then agreed to by the sitting President. Considering that the Republican party has control of all of those steps, there will likely be little to no resistance.
One of their plans in the coming days is to roll back the rule on teacher preparedness. They will be considering two rules that were put in place to insure that teacher preparedness programs in colleges and universities were all of the same high caliber.
Way back in 1965, under Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law was intended to reduce achievement gaps between students in disparate states by providing federal dollars to supplement the local budgets in poorer states. The idea was widely approved by both parties and the ESEA has been reauthorized ever since its beginning. It was most recently reauthorized in 2001 under Republican President George W. Bush as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB.)
As the years have gone on, there are have been several additions and changes made to the law, but its main goal has remained. It is still the goal of federal education law to decrease the achievement gaps between different races, between income groups and between native and non-native speakers of English.
As a part of that goal, President Obama issued two rules last year that required states to use data to insure that higher education programs that provide teacher training are as successful as those in other states. They required reporting of curriculum information as well as teacher graduation rates, teacher retention rates and teacher test scores.
The current Congress is looking to overturn the two rules, making it no longer necessary for states to show that they are providing excellence in teacher preparation. Supporters of the two executive rules believe that they would improve the quality and preparedness of public school teachers. Opponents believe that this is a states’ rights issue and that it shows federal overreach.
Unfortunately, one of the statements by supporters both in and out of the government is that “now we can create something better.” We will have to see what the Republican Party believes will be “better,” given the bipartisan support for the ESEA and NCLB.
Here is a link to all of the bills and actions planned for the House of Representatives this week: Schedule for the week of 2/6/17. Use it to help you follow the legislative actions of the next few weeks.
Featured image by Woodleywonderworks via Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)
