Education

Since 1965, the overall funding per student in the United States has tripled, and today our country spends more than $10,000 educating each student every year.  However, the educational investment our federal, state, and local governments make has yielded minimal improvement.  Student test scores in math and reading have remained flat, and graduation rates remain stagnate.

The quality of our children’s education directly effects how we as a state and country will prosper at home and compete globally. Michigan cannot create a smart and successful workforce without a well educated youth, and it is important to our economic growth ability to create jobs.  I believe that successfully educating Michigan’s future workforce depends on how much control we have in our state and community.  While they may think so, bureaucrats in Washington do not know more than Michigan’s parents about the needs of our children.

Return Control to State and Local Educators
As a member of Congress, I have consistently supported legislative initiatives that would give the states, parents and teachers the ability to determine the educational needs of our children. In the 112^th Congress I have supported current legislative efforts to allow each state to spend federal education dollars how they see fit, rather than Washington, D.C.

School Choice
Michigan parents should have the opportunity to choose the type of education their children receive.  I believe that if federal scholarships are made available to some students in failing schools, they should be allowed to attend the educational institution of their choice, free from government interference.

No Child Left Behind
The Department of Education, through the No Child Left Behind program, has succeeded in taking more power away from state and local educators and redistributed the decision making to Washington bureaucrats. Congress needs to re-examine the regulations established by this program and turn decision making back to local parents and teachers.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Instead of one large bill to reauthorize ESEA, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, of which I am a member, has taken up the task of separating the process in to a series of smaller bills.  To date, five bills have passed out of the committee: 

Introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), H.R. 1891, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, reduces the role the federal government plays by eliminating programs that are redundant in nature or have been slated to be eliminated by the Obama Administration.  These programs do not benefit Michigan’s students. 

H.R. 2218, the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act, also introduced by Rep. Hunter, provides conditions for charter schools to form and grow.  H.R. 2218 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 13, 2011 with overwhelming bipartisan support of 365-54. 

H.R. 2445, the State and Local Funding Flexibility Act, introduced by Rep. John Kline (R-MN), would create new conditions to allow for schools to have more choice in how they spend their federal dollars.   This freedom to choose will allow schools to target their federal money to the programs and students they see as most in need.

Also introduced by Rep. Kline H.R. 3989, the Student Success Act, would return responsibility for student achievement back to the state and local levels and put more power in the hands of parents.  By investing taxpayer dollars wisely it will strengthen programs for schools as well state and local autonomy.   It also removes several mandates that stand in the way of school success.  

Lastly, H.R.3990, the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act, would help enhance teacher effectiveness.  Introduced by Rep. Kline, the bill gives parents information on their teacher’s effectiveness and engages them play a greater role in their children’s education.

05/03/2012 - Opinion Editorial: Fixing the Problems in Student Lending
06/15/2011 - Press Release: Walberg Votes to Repeal Unnecessary Education Regulations