The nation’s education chief Arne Duncan announced the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 2015 on the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s signing of the original law to increase educational opportunity for all American children, which includes the use of school buses.
In making the announcement Seaton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., Duncan called for an end to “No Child Left Behind,” a path that he called restrictive and broken, in favor of a new ESEA that shows the nation is “serious about real opportunity for every single child” with the goal of making all students college- and career-ready, “an absolute necessity,” he said for a global economy. He said schools need more support and resources to focus on real achievement and reiterated the Obama Administration’s call for universal preschool and referenced Head Start.
Meanwhile, Duncan said teachers also need better support, prepraration and resources. He called education not an option but a “Civil Right, a moral imperative and the best way that we can strengthen our nation and attract and retain great jobs to expand the middle class.”
Duncan also announced that President Obama will include an extra $2.7 billion in his budget proposal for schools, including $1 billion for schools that serve the most vulnerable children via Title I programs.
While not specifically mentioning student transportation, Duncan did reference the need for school busing as an education equity tool as one of the reasons behind President Johnson’s original drafting of ESEA.
Watch Duncan’s remarks, below:
