Can States Just Ignore ESSA?
May 12, 2019
In Education Week, as part of the publication’s “Answering Your ESSA Questions” series, Alyson Klein responds to a query posed by Sheryl Santos-Hatchett of the University of North Texas: “What if a state refuses to follow through on or retracts a state plan and doesn’t care about funding? Does ESSA have any teeth to close down a school district? By what constitutional provision does ESSA have any right to dictate educational law?” The “short answer” to these questions is no. According to Klein, “ESSA doesn’t really have the teeth to force a state to follow through on its plan if the state doesn’t care about losing key federal funding. And two, a school district couldn’t close down because of ESSA.”