In an opinion piece in Education Week, Teachers College Education Policy doctoral student Megan Duff and Priscilla Wohlstetter, Distinguished Research Professor, argue that the Trump administration is failing to meet its responsibilities to provide guidance and support to states in their implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was passed into law in 2015 during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Priscilla Wohlstetter (TC file photo)

The current administration’s “laissez-faire approach to ESSA implementation” includes rescinding most regulations that the Obama administration issued as part of its “copious guidance,” write Duff and Wohlstetter. In addition, the Trump administration has deprioritized aspects of ESSA such as expectations around stakeholder engagement. 

The authors also find that, under Trump, the U.S. Department of Education has been “more likely to find states in violation of the part of the law that focuses on accountability and school improvement (ESSA Title I, Part A) than other sections of the law.” And they find that all state plans for rolling out ESSA “were fully approved by the federal government within a few months—even ESSA plans that were not fully in compliance with the law [authors’ italics].” 

Duff and Wohlstetter conclude that “for every student to succeed, all levels of government need to confirm the ESSA bargain: providing states leeway to innovate while offering sufficient regulatory guidance and support to ensure states comply with the law in full. ESSA may increase state autonomy, but it does not absolve the federal government of its responsibility.”