Frederick Hess Asses What ESSA “Means in Practice”
September 8, 2016
Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an opinion piece on the various challenges in K-12 education, including ESSA. While ESSA removed a large amount of Washington oversight, Hess believes that the situation is now contingent upon what ESSA “means in practice.” Hess argued that the objective for education reformers should be to “build on what’s been working, work on fixing what hasn’t, and replace bureaucratic excess with a spirit of decentralized problem-solving.” He emphasized the opportunity for conservative reformers to shape ESSA by withholding from federal policy influence.