All right. I think we are going to go ahead and get started. We are missing aft president randi winegarden. She will be joining us as soon as she gets here. Im the education reporter at u. S. News. Youre at the changing politics of k12 panel discussion. Thank you for being here. Ewa wrangled a pretty awesome panelis panelists. Theres nothing really going on in dc right now, right . I am going to leave the bio to you guys. You can look in the program and see it. I will quickly run down the line here. We are lindsay burke. For those of you who are sort of like outside the beltways here jeffreys is the president of democrats for education reform. He is also a civil rights lawyer. Next to him is marty west. The republican from tennessee. A quick housekeeping note, that is one of the first panels at ewa. Please tweet using so its fair game. Its a little warning. We want you to make news. This is also being live streamed on periscope. Because we have such big task today we want to provide lots of time for your questions. We are going to forego opening remarks and sort of dive right into this. I wanted to talk a minute to set the scene we are currently in. Ill just ask, six months ago how many of you guys thought we would be in this politics and policy we are in today . Raise your hand . No one . Really . Okay. So the collective we kind of missed the ball on this. I dont think many of us expected to have President Trump or maybe we expected a republican would be in the white house but maybe not this republican. He is certainly doing things a little differently as he has pledged to do. We are transitioning from an administration that really prioritized education right from the get go really with race to the top super charging cool improvement grant, expanding the office for civil rights, pushing for universal k12, so on and so forth. Now we have an administration that so far has a singular agenda and focusing on ruling back the federal government and undoing a lot of these initiatives. His budget propose pal to slash from federal programs and eliminate things like teacher preparation and after School Programs. We will get to all of that. Behave an education secretary who has proven controversial so far. The confirmation included a tie breaking vote from mike pence. Similarly to trump her main focus has been School Choice inclui including private School Voucher. Well dig into that as well. This is happening across the states the law was crafted with bipartisanship in congress. Irt seem to no longer really exist. Well talk about that as well. Despite republicans controlling both chambers of correct me if im wrong its unclear whether any type of education legislation or any legislation, major legislation is going to be able to move given some of the fighting. We will get to that as well. Where does this all leave us . A lot to cover. Where does it leave teachers unions. Most importantly, what should we be paying attention to . I will dive right into it. Be thinking of questions. Well save 20 minutes at the end for all of you guys. I want to start off and talk about School Choice at the top of everyones agenda these days. Linds lindsay, Education Savings Accounts, tax credit scholarships. Some people in this room though i feel like might be interested or might not be expecting the fact that you dont really want the Trump Administration going there. If you could maybe talk a little bit from that and where you come from there and give us a little idea of what states are doing interesting things and what we should be paying attention to. On the School Choice front you totally nailed it. I have been a huge proponent of School Choice. It really is our perspective is all of the pof on above on i. Whether it is tuition, tax credit scholarships. You mentioned Education Savings Accounts which i think is where the Education Choice movement is going right now. We really see sort of an all of the above approach. Any option that enables a parent to select a school that fits well with the needs of their child i think is a good option. Prefacing this that i spend my waking hours, is it appropriate for the federal government to be engaged in a large scale push . I think its really key is whether or not its a new program. And i think that we have a fair amount to risk by engaging in a new large scale federal program. States are doing it on their own already. We are seeing state of state year after year adopt new Education Choice options every legislative session and then theres just the practical matter that we are all aware of that 90 of all Education Funding is state and local. Practically speaking thats where the dollars are unless you were to do a new program which is what i worry about a little bit. If we are establishing a new program its hard to reconcile a new program. That is the other perspective that i hold. I think well get into this later by maybe its a tax credit approach that might be under consideration. We are talk about this but i think in every opportunity to make a decision about what that Program Looks Like the federal government would likely regulate it. What does the impact end up being down to road . What sort of idea do we establish . I think maybe a view isnt worth the hype. I want to ask you about the viability of this, whether it is politically possible. We heard President Trump pledge 20 billion. We saw in the budget a billion dollars boost for School Districts that promise to allow to follow the student to the school of their choice and 250 million private School Voucher prachogram. We dont know how it could be structured. Perhaps it is tax credit scholarship. Is it even a reality . So republicans now control both the house and the senate and i think it lead a lot of people to expect that it would be politically very easy to push a major School Choice agenda from washington. Her damage is located 73 feet from the senate that works very hard. There is not overwhelming support for efforts to expand School Choice because of concerns for what it means for the federal role. We have seen in the past the house often being reluctant to bring up the vote to follow students to schools of their choice because they dont want to expose to fact downlothat th not support nar. It creates obstacles to advance School Choice proposals. You mention add few ideas. They are all small ball ideas. There is this weighted student funding pilot program. It would allow up to 50 districts to apply to use funding systems that basically combine federal state and local funds and allow them to follow children to the Public School they attend. The Public School wants to incentivize by taking site l one formula funds and proposal half a billion dollars to that and encouraging state to participate. You know, even that is not necessarily a School Choice program. Its really a way to try to model out a way for administering federal aid programs that is more combata e combatable. I just really think that theres an uphill battle facing a lot of these proposals. So far we have heard a lot about empowering states to make these decisions on their own and not relying ton federal government to do it for them. It already is a huge them for this adadministration. Youll see it more and more amidthe backdrop which ships a lot of power look to state and local School Districts. I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit about what you have seen in terms of how to stakes are sort of getting higher as some of this shifts back to their realm. What should we be as state reporters be thinking about as some of that turns over to, you you know, their responsibility . Yes. I think it should focus on core issues and the core work of Public Schools. You know, obviously choice conversation is relevant and significant. I would push people to look at standards and accountability. What are the standards states are going to choose in terms of what they expect of kids . Are those standards aligned with ensuring kids are college and career ready when they graduate from high school . Are they aligned with ongoing shifts that is changing at a pretty rapid rate. How are School Districts doing to hold individual schools to make sure kids are being educated against those standards. What does accountability mechanism look like . We have had a history. People like me would support and ensure basic equity. Kids generally havent met those standards. Whether the child may be a lowincome kid. Who invasions are schools going to use . If they havent missing those kids what what have states going to do . If you just say this is a c or d or do something to make sure those young people have an opportunity to fulfill their potential. How will they make sure it has high loi number of qualified teachers in these classrooms . We do a lot to have more Clinical Base aid proechs so educators can hit the ground running. How are states going about ensuring they have a strong supply of teachers and School Leaders . Who are states going to make sure universities in their state are admitting meaningful numbers of Pell Grant Eligible kids . We have many universities and im talking about kids situated in terms of academic profile. Again, im talking about kids with the same academic profile. Many state universities under significant revenue pressure and so what are states going to do to make sure they are open to all . We have over 3 million who attend public Charter Schools. So the conversation is absolutely important. We personally support a choice through the Public Education system through public Charter Schools. It is a strong track record of results there. We have the kind of core bread and butter work. We think its important not to lose track of that because both kids in choice programs to the extent they will have access to college teachers. How much more important is it for us to cover elections sorlt of moving from foe cussing on the federal government as years prior. Its trying to rewrite no child left behind. The tiltawhirl shifting towards state and local School Districts. What pointers can you give us that we might see coming up, things like that . Ill tell you if im a reporter im thinking what she said is right. There are 400,000 kids in private School Choices today. It includes scholarship programs. So 400,000 today but we have seen several states adopt effectively universal options. So you look at nevada. There are programs currently. Its going through a legal battle right now. They are working out financing. If that all works itself out 473,000 kids in nevada will be eligible for an Education Savings Account this fall. It immediately doubles that number. Not all that well take it up but eligibility will be for esa. In arizona, arizona just took their savings account universal. There is still a cap on the number of kids who can participate. Thats the trend that we are seeing. States adopt primarily and families love them and states move to make them more yuniver l universally available. Yes, you can focus on School Board Elections and mayoral races and all of that good stuff. We are getting to a Tipping Point particularly if nevada works itself out, if we see arizona continue to push, if texas gets a School Choice program in place i think well be at a Tipping Point where the focus will be on kids who are exercising private School Choice. So choice for military families in desperate need of children who are relegated to schools. Make dc on all choice district. There are things the federal government can do that respect federalism and that would do a lot of good far lot of kids. So ill sort of embrace the premise of your question. I would say theres only so much you can learn from the planned stage. The action will be when it comes to how the plans are implemented and whats done in schools that are done as underperforming. The federal government says nothing except you need to take evidence based actions at this point. So really power is in the hands of states and School Districts to make those decisions. We have dozens of states that are in the process in response to Obama Administration policies of teacher evaluation systems. It will be interesting to see what decisions they make Going Forward or whether its a develop alternatives. And the relevant battles over funding are also at the state level. We get worked up about proposed 9 billion in cuts. Its large as a percentage of federal aid. It is only about 10 of total funding. You know, even a substantial cut really doesnt make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Thats where the action is when it comes to funding as well. It will be interesting to see the extent to which they do become nationalized. There was clearly an effort to do that in l. A. Recently to sort of attach the reformist School Board Candidates who were supportive of expansion to Charter Schools to trump himself. There was an effort to do that in montana. It doesnt seem to me those are gained a lot of traction at this point. That is clearly something that opponents of the policies they have embraced and will try to use. Lets talk a little bit about the people who are still in congress who have the Decision Making authority over education issues. Im thinking of lamar alexander, virginia fox, maybe luke messer. I would have said a few months ago senator patty murray but it seems like theres been a bit of a fracture that comes along with education issues. Where do you guys see them standing on moving education legislation through the pipeline . Im thinking maybe a career tech ed. Theres bipartisan ship around that. What can we expect . You know, are there folks who dont play who were not who were not really considering. There is a push ton part of the administration i this to streamline the tax code to lower rates. You know, does that run into a push far new federal tax credit scholarship which maybe could go in the opposite direction . I say that only to say there will be interesting dynamics that operate outside of the session space when it comes to Something Like a scholarship program. Ata is up for reauthorization. We could see some removement in that direction. The calendar is pretty truncated into the fall. Do you think theres any alignment from some of those republicans with the agenda of secretary and Trump Administration in general . I was struck fwi fact that when the president s skinny proposal came out made that point of saying the last time he checked in that the president just proposes. A little shot. And i think it suggested to me that he was, you know, signaling he wasnt necessarily supportive of everything they were trying to do. You know, my sense is that senator alexander feels if they worked very hard to establish a new consensus on the federal role that that bill set authorization levels for programs that they want to see roughly followed because it was part of the compromised made to generate support for that legislation. Even setting aside the fact that there is strong support from the education establishment for the continuation of those formula funds, i think just the fact that we just did this deal means theres not on tight for moving forward. There may be opportunities to try to carve out something of a consensus. I dont see a set of ideas in that space that people are excited about when it comes to the federal role. I think where youre more likely to see potential for bipartisan ship would be with respect to Higher Education act where i think there is a set of ideas that are related to simplifying financial aid, that do provide sort of seeds of potential collaboration. Beyond that i dont see much. Again, to go back to your original question i dont see an immediate embrace from the key republicans in congress of everything the Trump Administration has been talking about. Okay. Can i jump in one second . Yeah. If our friends in congress were serious about limbing federal intervention. We were skeptical that it went nearly far enough. If it did that we would have seen some reductions in spending. We didnt see that at all. They spent roughly 24 billion. I dont see any real robust reductions and i think its a 13. 6 reduction. I think ed week reported it was the largest single year percentage reduction. That is getting serious at least a good first step of trimming federal spending and trimming programs is a necessary condition. Yeah. Lets stay on this for a second. Maybe you can help us out here. As education reporters, should some of these cuts come to light what should we be looking for . How should we be looking to portray how that is impacting teachers, students, schools. What do you think m so of the first things well see if some of those cuts come to life . I think reporters should follow the money and track the impact for kids. 10 million thats cut from everything from teacher prep to college aid for young people to after School Programs for young people. You know, thats before you get to, you you know, some of the other cuts in this budget