Senator Coons joined nine of his moderate Democratic senate colleagues Friday in writing to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to offer his support for the administration’s plan to offer waivers to states seeing relief from some of the more onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind.
The waivers wouldn’t be necessary if Congress was to move forward with plans to reform and reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but with those efforts apparently stalled, the waivers represent the best option for continuing some progress on education reform.
“Like you, we are committed to working to reauthorize No Child Left Behind,” the Senators wrote. “However, we also recognize that students are headed back to school under the current law, which is simply not working for too many students.”
“While it remains our first choice that Congress move quickly to reauthorize this critical piece of legislation, we also know that our states are in need of relief now, and our kids can’t afford to wait. Therefore, in the absence of a reauthorization bill, we support your recent announcement that you will use your authority under the law to provide much needed relief to states in the form of an ESEA flexibility package in exchange for needed reforms.”
Read the full letter below.