We will take bold steps to ensure our system welcomes and rewards the best teachers. As president, I will make it my goal to ensure that every classroom has a quality teacher.
There are currently 82 programs in ten agencies that spend $4 billion on teacher quality. As president, I will consolidate these programs, and block grant them to states that adopt innovative policies
… Mitt Romney remarks on education reform as prepared for delivery on Wednesday at The Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit in Washington, D.C May 23, 2012

Sound familiar ?

Well, April 6, 2011 Chairman John Kline of the Education and Workforce Committee issued a press release :

U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by John Kline (R-MN), today held a hearing to examine wasteful government spending detailed in a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The report, entitled “Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue,” found several instances of overlapping federal programs, including 82 individual teacher quality programs and 47 separate job training programs administered by multiple agencies.
“We all have a responsibility to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars and make the tough choices necessary to streamline federal programs within this committee’s jurisdiction,” Chairman Kline concluded. “A failure to act when confronted with such compelling evidence of waste would be indefensible.”

(Side note : The report also identified $77 billion of waste at the Department of Defense, that hopefully, Mr. Kline as a Member of the House Armed Services Committee has addressed.)

Chairman Kline’s committee eventually issued legislation
H.R. 1891 SETTING NEW PRIORITIES IN EDUCATION SPENDING ACT
Introduced 5/13/2011
Approved by Committee 6/14/2011 by a vote of 23-16
House Status : Waiting for the Republican-managed House to authorize debate and final passage.

OK, Chairman Kline please explain your comment of over a year ago – “A failure to act when confronted with such compelling evidence of waste would be indefensible.”
The nonpartisan watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) was quick to point out when the GAO report was issued that much of the waste highlighted by the GAO has been obvious for many years, but that Congress has done little to address the problems … and now ONE YEAR later and Chairman Kline has still not closed the deal.

The Republicans control the House and you have FAILED to move the legislation forward … what … so that Mitt Romney can have a campaign issue … (oh and by the way, the Obama Administration agrees with many of these cuts as before Chairman Kline even held the hearing, the Obama administration had proposed combining 38 programs for training current teachers into 11 … the FAILURE starts and ends with Chairman Kline.)

Mr. Romney also stated :
In his speeches, President Obama likes to tell us “we can’t wait.”
If only he would say that and mean it about education reform – because millions are waiting for change, and so many are missing their chance.
President Obama has made his choice, and I have made mine: As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America.

Mr. Romney … your speechmaking isn’t exactly inspiring … and neither are your ideas … but one thing that everyone can agree on … “we can’t wait” … and we have been.

Why has there been such a delay for Chairman Kline to schedule votes on reforming Education ? (see below for the status of Chairman Kline’s legislation.)

As was prominently discussed during the Republican Presidential candidates debates, there are many Republicans that believe the Federal role in Education should be rescinded (such as Sandy Adams (R-FL-24), Todd Akin (R-MO-02), Steve Austria (R-OH-07), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-06), John Duncan (R-TN-02), Bob Gibbs (R-OH-18), Don Manzullo (R-IL-16), Mike Pompeo (R-KS-04), Bill Posey (R-FL-15), Reid Ribble (R-WI-08), Martha Roby (R-AL-02), David Schweikert (R-AZ-05) Steve Southerland (R-FL-02), Scott Tipton (R-CO-03), Steve Womack (R-AR-3), etc. – all indicated that they wanted to reduce the role of the Federal Government in Education) … heck even Rick Perry remembered that the Department of Education was one of the three departments he would shutdown (as was echoed by Ron Paul while Michele Bachmann also embraced major changes.)

Yet, wanna-be Educator-in-Chief Romney offered his vision …
As President, I will give the parents of every low-income and special needs student the chance to choose where their child goes to school. For the first time in history, federal education funds will be linked to a student, so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school, or to a private school, where permitted. And I will make that choice meaningful by ensuring there are sufficient options to exercise it.

Gosh, not much of a surprise that candidate Romney would expand school choice programs as that concept has been supported by Chairman Kline.
Charter schools have been favored by Republicans for a long time … of course, one consideration is that charter schools may be affiliated with religious institutions … heck, Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher of moderate Islam who has built up a worldwide network of followers and operates 36 charter schools in Texas under the Harmony Cosmos Foundation umbrella while the Washington DC area has a number of religious-sponsored charter schools that Mr. Romney praised.

So where is the money coming from ?
After all, the Kline-supported Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012, H.R. 5652, would make $300 billion in cuts over to ten years to critical safety net programs and Obama administration priorities … this to increase defense spending, rather than cut it, as would be required under the sequestration proposal in last summer’s deficit cutting deal.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan estimated that the Ryan Budget could result in an 18 percent cut to education funding the department projects for 2014.
To put the cuts in perspective, Secretary Duncan said the $14.5 billion Title I program, which helps districts cover the cost of educating disadvantaged kids, could see a $2.7 billion cut. As many as 38,000 teachers aides could lose their jobs, he said.
And funding for children with disabilities could be cut by over $2.2 billion, meaning that 30,000 special education teachers, teachers’ aides, and others could be cut. Special education state grants are funded at $11.6 billion this year.
Mr. Romney’s plan would be to use Title I funding and special education (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) at charter schools, for online courses, or for tutoring. Federal per-student Title I and special-education funds, on their own, are probably not sufficient to cover many private school costs … so parents may find themselves paying more for education (plus the amounts that are paid via property taxes and income taxes).

As voters make their choice this November, the focus should be on the agenda’s promoted by the candidates.
Mr. Romney and Mr. Kline are pretty clear where they want to go … and where they have been. Chairman Kline’s record and vision is highlighted below with his proposals to reform education while readers of the book, The Real Romney, know that Governor Romney vetoed a bill that would have limited class size in early-grades and one that would have created universal prekindergarten … and now wanna-be President Romney plans to reduce the role of Federal Government spending on education.

For the record, Chairman Kline’s reform for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is better known today as No Child Left Behind, the five segments are :

H.R. 2218 EMPOWERING PARENTS THROUGH QUALITY CHARTER SCHOOLS ACT
Introduced 6/16/2011
Approved by Committee 7/22/2011 by a vote of 34-5
Approved by House on 9/13/2011 by a vote of 365-54
Awaiting Senate Bill (most likely S 1566)

H.R. 2445 STATE AND LOCAL FUNDING FLEXIBILITY ACT
Introduced 7/7/2011
Approved by Committee 7/25/2011 by a vote of 23-17
House Status : Waiting for the Republican-managed House to authorize debate and final passage.

H.R. 3989 STUDENT SUCCESS ACT
Introduced 2/9/2012
Approved by Committee 2/28/2012 by a vote of 23-16
House Status : Waiting for the Republican-managed House to authorize debate and final passage

H.R. 3990 ENCOURAGING INNOVATION AND EFFECTIVE TEACHERS ACT
Introduced 2/9/2012
Approved by Committee 2/28/2012 by a vote of 23-16
House Status : Waiting for the Republican-managed House to authorize debate and final passage

And H.R. 1891 (as stated above)
House Status : Waiting

Let us also remember aspects of Chairman Kline’s Education Reform has been opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has been outspoken about two of Chairman Kline’s bills reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, calling them bad for taxpayers and bad for students.

Since, Special Education is mentioned, it must be acknowledged that Council For Exceptional Children has voiced its objections to Chairman Kline’s bills stating that :
Increase privatization and move resources away from public schools.
Reduce, cap and eliminate funding.
Eliminate important protections that ensure students with disabilities are held to high standards.
Reduce accountability for students with disabilities

H.R. 3989 was opposed by a broad array of education, civil rights and business organizations. Over 200 groups, representing students, teachers, school leaders, parents, and business wrote letters in opposition to H.R. 3989. Some of the groups in opposition include: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Education Trust, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, the National PTA, the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, MALDEF, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, the Council for Exceptional Children, the National Education Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principles, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the American Federation of Teachers, the Children’s Defense Fund, National Disability Rights Network, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the Council of the Great City Schools.

Maybe there is good reason WHY the Education Reform being proposed by Chairman Kline and candidate Romney are being rejected.