New Momentum for ESEA: The Senate's Draft and the Law's Future
November 2011
On Thursday, October 20, 2011, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently authorized as the No Child Left Behind Act. The Committee passage marks the first time the law has seen legislative action in the Senate since it was last authorized in 2001. Although there are still many steps on its path to reauthorization, this is an important step forward.
For public media, the bill is an opportunity to continue core early learning work and to explore new funding partnerships. The bill reauthorizes the current Ready To Learn without any changes except dropping "television" from its name. By dropping "television" from its name, the Committee signaled its commitment to the broader array of services Ready To Learn offers, including television, online and community-based programming. Ready To Learn provides significant funding ($27 million in FY 2011) for public broadcasting entities, with funding generally going to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who awards subgrants to stations and producers to create content and services.
The bill creates a handful of new education programs that could bring opportunities for public media:
- A new program was approved by the Committee via an amendment offered by Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) for "well-rounded education." This funding would go to school districts, and they could use it for programs related to arts, foreign language, health education, history, physical education, civics and government and other subject areas.
- A literacy program based on Senator Patty Murray's (D-WA) Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act was included in the bill. This new program would provide funding to states to improve literacy instruction by supporting teacher professional development, literacy coaches and new research and by identifying innovative practices to improve literacy and writing.
- An amendment offered by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) was accepted that would reauthorize the Educational Technology State Grants, a program that was eliminated in the 2011 budget. The program faced steep cuts over the last ten years, but it was a critical resource for states implementing technology programs. This program would help states purchase technology hardware and software and support programs that improve students' technological literacy.
The bill also authorizes President Obama's signature education programs: Race To The Top, Promise Neighborhoods and the Investing In Innovation (i3) Fund. Public broadcasting stations are eligible to apply for Promise Neighborhoods and i3 and can be official partners to the states who can apply for Race To The Top.
Although this bill is promising and offers new opportunities for public media, there are several steps it must go through before these programs become law. Next, it will have to be voted on by the Senate as a whole, and the Senate may vote to make changes to the Committee bill. The House Committee has passed three pieces of ESEA (the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, the State and Local Funding Flexibility Act and the Empowering Parents Through Quality Charter Schools Act, which was also passed by the full House) and is still working on a draft of a bill addressing the remaining programs in the law, such as Title I. It is anticipated that the House will take a different approach to reauthorization than the Senate. If both the House and Senate pass their versions of the ESEA reauthorization, a conference committee of House and Senate leaders would be formed to negotiate the differences and send a final bill to the President. All of these steps could take significant time, and each step provides another opportunity for changes to the drafts.
For now, though, this is an encouraging Congressional effort to reauthorize this law, and it does include some good news for the public broadcasting community. The Grant Center will continue to track and share how new grant and partnership opportunities for public broadcasting fare as the reauthorization of ESEA moves forward.
