The Department of Education released today the final regulations for legislation that will make the first changes to foundational federal education laws since 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act.
The No Child Left Behind Act changed federal oversight of state education programs by emphasizing accountability measures, with states running the risk of losing funding for not hitting national benchmarks. The new rules, passed last December in the Every Student Succeeds Act, relax those measures to give states greater flexibility in choosing their own benchmarks.
The regulations go into effect January 30th, 2017, meaning they would be implemented by President-elect Donald Trump’s new secretary of education. For that position, Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist and advocate of school choice programs that give families taxpayer money to spend on private and religious schools.
