Barack Obama’s Say In ESSA: Nobody Wants US President’s Involvement In New Education Law

The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was signed into law by the Obama administration late last year, brought together protesters from major groups representing the various sectors of the K-12 education policy. Although ESSA offers advantages, protesters are concerned that the Obama administration will use the new education law to incorporate new regulations into the education system.

Protests Against ESSA

According to The Daily Caller, the groups of protesters want to ensure that the authority the new education law allocates to states in determining and ensuring the success of their local schools remains unhindered by the Obama administration. The lobbyists wrote a letter to John King, the current Secretary of Education, not to dilute that flexibility under any hope of returning some of its power to the Department of Education.

"On behalf of states, districts, educators and parents with a strong commitment to work together on implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), we encourage the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to refrain from defining terms and aspects of the new law that Congress gave communities the flexibility to determine," the protesters wrote.

Organizations Back Off To Ease Tensions

Primarily, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Association of Elementary School and similar protesting groups wish to avoid interference. Although interference in ESSA implementation may seem simple on paper, the underlying impact of new impositions could bring back old, and create new, burdens upon states and their schools.

The United States of America has the strongest, most durable economy in the world—and it's getting better. pic.twitter.com/mCyYWccvf5

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 1, 2016

 ESSA Brings A Good Kind Of Change

EdCentral points out that the reforms ESSA brings to the education system will be a welcome change. Certain points under the old education law were counterintuitive, so much so that bottlenecks existed in the system. However EdCentral says, in a manner of speaking, that ESSA may be a double-edged sword and must be balanced with careful consideration for why many state issues even in education still need the arbitration of the federal government.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the 2002 No Child Left Behind law under the Obama administration. ESSA is effectively shifting educational authority from the federal government onto the different states.