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Health & Fitness

The Federal Government Is Blackmailing Washington State!

As I understand it, federal law prohibits the federal government from ordering state governments to institute particular curriculum programs or management systems. The authority for those decisions is clearly in the hands of the states. HOWEVER, there does not seem to be a federal prohibition against blackmailing a state into accepting a particular management system, in this case the use of student growth data in the evaluation of individual teachers.


 “The U.S. Department of Education is threatening to revoke No Child Left Behind Act waivers for three states at the end of the 2013-14 school year over their failure to come up with new teacher-evaluation systems tied to student growth.


Kansas, Oregon, and Washington have been placed on "high-risk" status and given one more year to get their teacher-evaluation systems on track.”


http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/08/nclb_waivers_in_kansas_washing.html?cmp=ENL-EU-...


 In short, the federal government is telling Washington state, “Do what we told you to do, or else!” Whether you agree with the specific management system or not, having the federal government order states to do something not included in the enumerated powers of the federal government should concern all citizens.

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