Hirono: ‘No Child’ Reforms Would Rob Keiki
U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii says a bill purporting to reform the now-infamous misses its mark, and would rob keiki already at a disadvantage.
Her opposition to the measure didn’t stop with her vote against the on Wednesday. She followed up by calling Civil Beat to share her frustration with a bill that she says overturns years of effort to improve equal opportunity.
“I view this bill as a full frontal assault on the needs of disadvantaged, at-risk and English Language Learner children,” Hirono said in a phone call Wednesday.
The bill proposes giving states increased flexibility over how they spend federal and funds, which are currently designated for education-related services targeted at low-income students and English Language Learners.
Hawaii has more than 125,000 children receiving funds from Title I, Part A, which would be one of the programs affected if the bill is signed into law. The Hawaii Department of Education also has about 18,000 English Language Learners in its schools.
Hirono, a longtime advocate for children and education, said the legislation would “allow the siphoning away of monies that support the education of disadvantaged students. This includes monies that help low-income students and funds for English Language Learners, migrant, neglected, Native American and Alaskan Native students. School districts would be able to move that targeted funding and use it for almost anything allowed under the Elementary and Secondary School Act.”
The state received about $52 million from the U.S. Department of Education this year for the four programs that would be affected, according to Hirono’s office:
- Title I, Part A — Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies: $47,568,135
- Title I, Part C – Education of Migratory Children: $833, 732 * Title I, Part D, Subpart 1 – Prevention and Intervention Programs for Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At- Risk: $354,956
- Title III, Part A – English Language Acquisition State Grants: $2,990,877
H.R. 2445 would allow school districts to redirect those funds to other activities unrelated to core academics for low-income and ELL students, Hirono said.
The Republican-sponsored bill was marketed as an effort to improve No Child Left Behind, Hirono said, but it in fact veers off in a completely different direction.
“What we should be doing is looking at NCLB and doing a lot of the things people have been asking for,” she explained. “There are parts of the existing law that educators have said they want changed, but this bill does not address any of those changes. They call it giving flexibility to the states, but it’s not the kind of flexibility that educators and people we’ve been talking to — that this committee has been talking to — for years are asking for.”
The House Education and the Workforce Committee voted along party lines, and the bill passed. Hirono said it will go to the House of Representatives for a floor vote, after which it would go to the Senate for approval.
