Responding to media reports that parental options in education are coming under fire by some in the education establishment, the House education committee’s top Republican has called on U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to ensure parental options are protected and expanded, particularly for students in struggling schools. Rep. Howard P. “Buck" McKeon (R-CA) wrote to Secretary Duncan yesterday and urged him to reject efforts to scale back on the parental rights now guaranteed under federal education law.
“The parental options guaranteed to the families of children attending underperforming schools are essential to our efforts to strengthen educational opportunity in this country," said McKeon. “One of the most powerful signals Secretary Duncan could send as a reformer would be to reject the efforts of those who would undermine parental choice and control, and I stand ready to work with him in that effort."
The No Child Left Behind Act created new options never before available to parents of children in underperforming schools. Under the law, schools that consistently fail to make adequate yearly progress must allow parents to transfer their children to better performing public schools or provide supplemental educational services like free tutoring. Although millions of students have benefitted from these new options, many schools remain resistant to these rights guaranteed to parents. As a result, families are often denied necessary information about the options available to them.
McKeon and other Republicans have called for an expansion in the options available to parents, including steps that would make free tutoring available even sooner after schools begin struggling and requirements that parents be made fully aware of the choices available for their children.
“Recent press reports have indicated that the Department is reviewing the final Title I regulation and considering possible changes that could have the effect of weakening parental options guaranteed under the law. … If the SES and public school choice provisions are weakened, those choices become non-existent and parents will be left with nothing but the knowledge that their children are trapped in underperforming schools," wrote McKeon.
The full text of McKeon’s letter to Secretary Duncan is available online here.
