Handful of State Leaders Appeal Directly to U.S. Dept. of Ed to Reject Plans
October 5, 2017
According to Education Week’s Daarel Burnette II, after “failing to convince their own education departments to amend their states’ accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, elected leaders in a handful of states have appealed directly to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to reject those plans.” Burnette notes the “two-year, ESSA-mandated stakeholder-engagement process for putting those plans together was contentious and haphazard in many states, and not all local officials were on board with the final product.” But “plans got sent in anyway, and the backlash continues,” in states such as Pennsylvania (as reported above), Georgia, and Michigan. However, it’s not clear if Secretary DeVos “will reject a plan if a state hasn’t decided who should be in charge of the bulk of education policy,” but notes she “already has approved Louisiana’s state plan which was submitted without Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ signature.”