The administration, including Education Secretary John King Jr., and its allies in the civil rights community had championed the changes as necessary to ensure that funding meant for the nation’s neediest children is not diverted to more affluent schools.
But the proposed regulations had triggered strong resistance from most of the education establishment, including teachers unions, district leaders and state superintendents, as well as from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
GOP leaders had said they would use every tool at their disposal to roll back the regulations, should the Obama administration choose to finalize them. That threat took on new power after the election of Republican Donald Trump as president.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for education secretary, declined at her confirmation hearing this week to say whether she intends to enforce another regulation, recently finalized by the Obama administration, that lays out how states must judge which schools are not serving children well and what to do about them.
Dorie Nolt, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said that the administration withdrew the regulations because it ran out of time “to publish a strong final regulation that lives up to the promise of the law.”
“There are still far too many places in this country where the students needing the most support end up getting the least,” Nolt said in a statement. “We urge supporters of public education across the country and the political spectrum to continue the fight for equitable access to resources both within and across school districts.”
The proposal was meant to ensure that school districts were not using federal Title I dollars, meant to provide extra services for poor children, as an excuse to direct fewer state and local dollars to schools in high-poverty areas.
Liz King, a staff member at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the organization is “disappointed” by the Obama administration’s decision.
“This administration has been a champion for the civil rights of all students, and raising this issue on equitable school funding is a key example,” King wrote in an email. “The clock ran out here, but we’re not done fighting to ensure robust enforcement of the nation’s education and civil rights laws and justice for the nation’s students.”
Those opposed to the regulations argued that the rules had no basis in law and would cause massive disruptions in schools, requiring huge changes in budgeting and the forced transfer of teachers.
Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents state superintendents, said his members appreciate the administration’s recognition that its proposed rules “would not draw resources to the kids who need them most.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate education committee and perhaps the fiercest critic of the Obama administration’s proposal, praised the decision to drop it.
“This proposal would have dictated from Washington how states and school districts should spend nearly all state and local tax dollars on schools in order to receive federal Title I dollars – which are only about 3 percent of total national spending on K-12 schools,” said Alexander, R-Tenn. “A regulation like this is not authorized by law; in fact, it is specifically prohibited by law.
Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
