President Donald J. Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C., 20006
Re: Problems with School Choice and Federal Mandates
998 Guion Dr., Lugoff, SC 29078
|
Dear President Trump,
Congratulations
on your inauguration and the early steps in launching many of your
campaign promises. United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE),
a nationwide grassroots organization of education advocates and
activists, is looking forward to working with you and Secretary DeVos to
MAKE EDUCATION GREAT AGAIN. We are formally reaching out to you and
your team to offer our years of research and insights from parents and
educators on behalf of America’s children to assist your efforts to
restore local control of education.
Ending
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and eliminating the Department of
Education will require the repeal of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
and a replacement strategy. It appears there is significant support for
the idea of establishing a network of school options that offer parents
real choice in the education of their children. All children are
different and many do not thrive in the traditional public school
model. The structure of this network of choice, the means of funding
and the Federal accountability mandates will significantly impact the
quality, depth and breadth of the options available.
As
CATO Institute found in their 2010 research*, Federal funding options,
including vouchers and Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s), drive Federal
accountability regulations into the schools. Regulations including
onerous testing mandates, intrusive data collection mandates, teacher
certification mandates, standards & curriculum mandates, all have
the potential for negative impacts on learning options. Classical
curriculum, Arts-based curriculum, technology-free, professional teacher
delivery, paper & pencil assessments, and others become impossible
options as they do not comply with mandated national standards supported
by mandated standardized (CCSS compliant) testing.
We
do not support school choice that imposes Federal mandates on private
or home schools or restricts true choice in public schools.
We
support the complete repeal of ESSA in order to open a free market
approach to education. Parents would be free to choose their school,
including the curriculum, the delivery, and the testing process.
American education would be more accountable to parents and the local
community, not to the state or federal government. This can only be
achieved through a significant reduction of the Federal role in
education.
USPIE
is committed to the goal of truly improving education for all of
America's children. We look forward to working with your administration.
Sincerely,
U.S. Parents Involved in Education
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