Edwards praises changes in federal education law

Gov. John Bel Edwards believes the school law rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law will help Louisiana public schools.

President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act in December, shifting some decision-making power back to the states.

“First of all, I think it’s going to have a positive impact,” Edwards said. “It’s going to allow for more local control.

“The federal government is not going to set all the standards up that we have to follow in terms of how often we test our kids. We are going to have more control over how we educate and test kids and how we remediate children, as well as the schools.”

Statewide reading and math standardized tests for grades 3-8 are still federally required. However, the new law encourages states to limit the time students spend on testing.

“So I’m looking forward to a day when we don’t administer as many … standardized tests,” Edwards said. “We are still going to measure students’ performance with a rigorous accountability system.

“But we’ve been testing our kids too much in this state.”

The new law also eliminates the federal mandate tying teacher evaluations to student performance on statewide tests. But states and districts will still be able to consider scores as a factor in teacher performance reviews.

Before becoming governor, Edwards served on the House Education Committee during legislative sessions going back to 2010.

“I happen to believe what Congress did and the bill that the president signed into law is a step forward, moving away from No Child Left Behind and allowing us to control our investment,” Edwards said.

It’s an ideal that hits home, too.

“As you know, my wife is a teacher and I’m very committed to public education,” Edwards said.