U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet staked out his claim to help shape national education reform Wednesday, announcing in his maiden speech on the Senate floor that he would draw up comprehensive legislation by year end.
The bill could include some of the most critical elements of a national reform agenda supported by the Obama administration and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: merit pay for teachers, voluntary national standards, and evaluations of students’ performance as they advance from grade to grade, known as longitudinal tracking. Bennet’s support for them is not a surprise.
But his bill advocating them would take a highly unusual path — Bennet doesn’t sit on the Senate education committee, where significant reform legislation is expected to originate. He would work with the White House and committee members in developing the bill, his staff said.
Voice of experience
The move answers a lingering question hanging over the newly minted lawmaker — how the former Denver Public Schools superintendent and the man touted as “the education senator” could impact policy after ending up on the Senate Agriculture Committee instead of education.
“For another senator it might be a problem not to be on the committee, but I think everyone in the Senate recognizes and respects Sen. Bennet’s experience, so his voice will be listened to more carefully,” said Amy Wilkins, vice president of the Education Trust, a national advocacy group.
That said, education experts said that a major reform bill outside the committee is highly unusual — and in this case is founded partly on Bennet’s close relationship with Obama’s education team, including Duncan.
But there also could be strategic motivations behind it, say longtime observers.
By including some of the most controversial elements of Obama’s agenda in the bill — especially a national system of merit-based pay for teachers — Bennet’s legislation could serve as a trial balloon, testing the strength of opposition to proposals that could later be jettisoned in a bill passed out of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Venue for recognition
It could also serve as a way for Bennet, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Bill Ritter in January and will run for election for the first time next year, to play a role in a major national policy debate as the Democrat goes before Colorado voters.
Bennet’s 20-minute speech detailed the problems plaguing the country’s public schools, including high burnout by teachers and low graduation rates among poor students. And he said the country’s economic long-term recovery is firmly linked to education reform.
“My experience (in Denver public schools) left me with a profound sense of urgency to change what is unfair and fundamentally unjust,” Bennet said in his speech.
“Now is the time to re-imagine our schools as magnets for talent, centers for communities and incubators of innovation.”
