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Courtesy of Jim Peyser
Jim Peyser, education adviser to Mitt Romney
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has attempted to make his philosophy about how to improve American education widely known and easily accessible in recent weeks. But he hasn’t answered many specifics on the campaign trail. The Hechinger Report spoke with Jim Peyser, a member of Romney’s education team and a partner at the NewSchools Venture Fund, to find out more. Peyser also served as an adviser to Romney during his years as Massachusetts governor.
Here are some highlights of the phone conversation:
On what we could expect from the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) -which funds and defines the federal government’s role in the nation’s school - under Romney:
ESEA will likely be reauthorized under our next president. (Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized the current iteration of the law, the No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB.) Under a Romney administration, expect the focus to be “more about taking things out than putting things in,” Peyser said.
Romney has already said he would eliminate the No Child Left Behind requirement that core classes be taught by highly qualified teachers. This portion of the law defines a highly qualified teacher as one who has a degree in the subject area he or she teaches.
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Peyser said a Romney administration would retain NCLB’s focus on assessments and accountability for schools and districts, but would likely minimize the consequences for schools that fail to meet standards.
“Those [consequences] have a minimal impact on what states and districts actually do. It ends up being more of a compliance exercise,” he said. “Those sorts of things would probably go away.”
Any bill produced would be consistent with Romney’s overall platform. “In general what he’d be looking to do is have a more narrowly focused federal education framework that is more targeted towards providing parents with greater choice,” Peyser said. “[It would be] less about micromanaging and establishing broad federal mandates.”
On how a Romney administration would take on teachers unions:
Although Republicans commonly criticize President Obama for not being tough enough on teachers unions, Peyser acknowledges that – especially with Romney’s goal of avoiding new mandates – a Romney administration would be limited in how it could enforce changes that some teachers unions balk at – such as new teacher evaluations or tenure reforms. Work rules for teachers are typically controlled at the state or local level.
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That doesn’t mean there would be no role for Romney, though. “The federal government can do things that either reinforce or provide incentive one way or another,” said Peyser.
The highly qualified teacher provision of NCLB, for instance, reinforced a salary structure in which teachers are awarded pay bumps based on the number of years they teach and number of degrees they earn, rather than how well they perform in the classroom, he said. “It’s reinforcing the basic structures that are enshrined in collective bargaining agreements,” he said. “It’s things like that – being more sensitive to these federal mandates and the way they play out on the ground.”
Peyser also added that Romney would support the development of more charter schools, which often operate outside of union contracts, and that he would use the bully pulpit of the presidency to get his message across.
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Win McNamee / Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
On school choice:
Increased school choice has become a signature issue for Romney – and the entire Republican Party. Romney’s white paper on education calls for putting more power in parents’ hands to choose schools for their children.
Yet, while parents care about academic quality, they might have a hard time evaluating it, Peyser said. An important component of expanded school choice would be having “information that is not only easier to get, but easier to understand,” he said.
“That’s only half of the equation,” Peyser said. “The other half is you have to have something to choose from.” Building up these quality options will take time. “It’s not a magic wand solution,” he said.
On how small “a heck of a lot smaller” U.S. Department of Education would be:
Romney told donors in April that he wouldn’t close the Department of Education. But he would consolidate it with another agency or make it “a heck of a lot smaller.”
Peyser said he didn’t know just how small we could expect the department to be under Romney but said it would certainly shrink substantially.
More from The Hechinger Report
- Will private schools even take voucher students?
- GOP convention speakers say education reform will require ‘getting ready for a fight’
- Condoleezza Rice talks educational ‘crisis’
One likely target for cutting or elimination would be grant programs run through the federal government. Many were created decades ago and have narrow requirements and focuses, according to Peyser.
“There is a huge opportunity for both a lot of consolidation and elimination of those programs that should have a pretty significant impact on the scale of the federal Department of Education as well,” he said.
This story,"From the convention: A Romney education adviser on how he’d take on unions and shrink the education department," was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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Leave a Comment:
Smoke, mirrors, fear and smear.
Totherepublic: Smoke, mirrors, fear and smear.
Yep that would be Obama's Presidency to the T.
Jeb Bush, speaking today, is championing the cause of choice for our schools, while putting out the claims that schools are forcing the children to eat their food, removing the choice from the parents. He is full of crap. The schools do remove Coke machines and other delivery systems of food known to be unhealthy, but never stopped a child from bringing a pepsi to school in his lunchbox.
The big deal in the Republican party is the hate of all unions that oppose Republicans! Romney has tens of millions invested in Charter schools that do not provide band, orchestra, sports, Physical Education, choir, or art classes, or after school programs, while having class sizes from 45 to 60 children per teacher. Romney can make bundles this way, but what kind of a balanced education will the kids get, if there isn't enough "teacher" to assist them when they get stuck on a problem they encounter? Will children develop inter-personal skills at all in Charter Schools?
Defunding the public school systems that have outperformed the home schools and the Charters is just a way for Republicans to make money, while cheating our children out of a well-balanced education. The Charter schools will receive grants from the government and remove funds from the public system, making both suffer.
Ultimately, the Republican goal is to entirely eliminate all public schools along with union teachers, so they can replace the curriculums with creationism, and push abstinence programs that do not work. Our children will be brainwashed by Republican philosophy from the time they are in pre-school , all the way to the Heritage University. You want to talk about a government run system, this one is the domain of the rich Republicans zealots who deal in lies!
And what will they serve in their cafeterias, Mr. Jeb Bush? Sushi and beer? And all for the "Cause" to remove union opposition to unpopular Republican values!
These folks are the wolves in sheep clothing! Make no mistake about it! Profits made by killing public fire departments, because, of course, for-profit fire departments fight fires better and the profits go into the investors pockets , instead of the equipment needed to fight the fires and training for their firefighters to learn their craft. Is this a good thing?
For-Profit schools that a voucher will not cover all the costs for? While the profits go into the hands of the investors? And many children will not be able to attend.
For-Profit contractors, who are mostly owned by big conglomerates, who use untrained, underpaid labor to build your homes and businesses, while cutting corners on what you paid for?
This is the promise of the Republicans, who want to make this country into a one party system. They have the funds to do it. Will we let them kill our public institutions, our Postal Service, our promises to all our children to equal access to education, not based on wealth or locality, but on proximity to a qualified public school for the wealth the rich can take out of it, funded with our own tax dollars?
Will we pretend that no one could be so devious? Romney has tens of Millions invested in Charter schools now. If he didn't care about the profits, why didn't he give it to the public schools and take the write off on his taxes? They are that devious! Republicans have long term plans to control our nation's wealth.
Are you stupid enough to kill the Unions that keep our wages high and not stagnating, like the Romneys and the Adelsons and the Koch Brothers prefer?
SHOW US YOUR TAX RETURNS, MITT. AMERICANS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF GUY YOU REALLY ARE!
Jack, Sorry but in the Iron Curtain State of California. No sodas brought in or bought are allowed in many of the Public Schools. But this is true in many Private Schools. Difference? Most folks are stuck with the failed public school systems. Bloated with Bureaucracy and Tenured ineffectual Teachers. "No Student will Fail" BS. I don't care which party did what. It should of been, "No Teacher will work if they can't pass the Test they give their own Students". But if you believe in the Feds than the "Department of Education", would not be the oxymoron it is to me.
Don't have money for Education and it's all the Union's fault,Right?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/28/republican-national-convention-the-one-graph-you-need-to-see-before-watching/
This is where the money for education is being pi$$ed away.
How come we don"t see reviews or comments about 2016, the movie based on Obamas book. Whenever that fat blimp in Hollywood makes a film bashing republicans, we hear about it ad nausea
Because it is bull@!$%# meant for the ill informed.
Of course it is bullsh*t if you are a brainwashed Republican, versed on Rushanomics, trained by Kochaholic for-profit schoolteachers, and unwed parents, who have close ties with your brothers.....We don't expect your kind to believe anything with a semblence to reality. You live in a bubble of misinformation, coddled with it, until you hate everything not white, everything you are brainwashed to hate. You do not accept change, the quality that sustains humankind. You live in a one tracked mindset, with nowhere to go, and thinking it's great, while the bridges and nuclear power plants begin to fail and your party won't allow them to get repaired....
Romney, the GREEDY EXTORTER OF CAPITAL would screw up a wet dream!
Just imagine how Romney could f-ck up our country and economy, he and Ryan would make G W Bush's failures look good.
You have an avowed Mormon and Catholic, neither one of which preach CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES!
Jay Below
Perchance you meant, (The) Teacher('s) (U)nion need(s) to be busted for the public good.
For some reason it seems you may be bitter about the quality of your education. Teachers do what they can under difficult conditions for relatively low pay considering the education needed to qualify for the job.
You know how it is,"you can't fix stupid".
LittleI56
But we have plenty of money for unfunded wars,right?
No. But we are there due to our failed Public Education system stuffed with Bureaucrats and Tenure Teachers, who far too many believe the system owes them. Leaving us with Citizens who honestly believe they are as bright as the System says they are. Thin out the Front Office and make Teachers take the same Test they give their Students. If they fail, terminate them. No Union protection which makes terminating failed Teachers nearly impossible and extremely expensive.
When Teachers are failing, it's already too late for the Students.
Is the teachers' union the savior of the country's education? The unions' only concern are job security of their members and the re-election of democrats who are their patrons and protectors.
Control of our children's education should be returned to the states! Everything wrong with public education began when Washington took control.
While the Federal government should indeed get it's nose largely out of education, the states also exercise more authority and waste more money than they have any right to. Money comes with paternalistic strings no matter what it's source. There is nothing wrong with a union that works to the benefit of all, but that's not the mission of modern teachers' unions. Like so much union leadership, they continue to fight battles they've already won.