The Advocate November 2024: Recommendations for the Next Administration Memo

With all of Washington in a state of paralysis ahead of the election, AASA chose to unveil a set of comprehensive recommendations focused on critical education priorities for the next administration. Our transition memo emphasizes the urgent need for robust federal investment in America's 50 million public school students as the nation continues to address pandemic-related challenges and longstanding educational inequities. It requests that the next President commit to support public schools and the 90% of K-12 students they educate and prioritize the most vulnerable students and those who support them by providing a more equitable framework for federal education policy and funding.

Similar to other transition memos AASA has released in the past, this year’s memo echoes the need for greater investments in formula funding as well as ensuring that these formulas equitably distribute resources. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) first known as the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act, there is an urgent need to address the perennial funding shortfalls in both the total amount and distribution of these IDEA funds. In addition, because we have not had a robust policy debate about the administrative and procedural requirements in the law so we also recommend a creation of a Commission at the U.S. Department of Education to make recommendations to Congress about how to improve IDEA reauthorization to ensure more equitable funding of IDEA, to reduce the shortage of educators and specialized instructional support staff that work with special education students, and to ensure more effective dispute resolutions when conflicts arise.

Other recommendations focus on data collection and usage in various contexts. There are 2,023 required data elements in 12 education laws that districts must annually report. We urge the next administration to request an audit of all federal data collection items and how to dramatically streamline collections from the state to the federal level, so districts are not reporting separate but similar data elements to multiple education agencies at different times of the year. We also urge the next administration to identify the most reliable and accurate student poverty metrics for distributing federal resources across federal programs. The utilization of free and reduced-price lunch application forms is antiquated and increasingly unreliable. Finally, we have many recommendations connected to data privacy including a request for new regulations for FEPRA, and increased funding for the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) to ensure districts have the resource to meet necessary student privacy guidance and conduct field training. 

We also ask the next administration to take steps to reduce the financial barriers to entering the teaching profession. Build upon the progress made towards improving and streamlining the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, reducing the administrative burden on applicants and ensuring all eligible public servants — including educators — receive the debt relief they were promised. When implemented properly, PSLF can be an effective tool to reward educators for their time in the classroom and incentivize them to remain in the profession.

Finally, considering the pending petition by the Federal Communications Commission before the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the 5th Circuit’s ruling that the Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional, we ask that the administration continue to support the FCC’s litigation and, if necessary, champion a legislative fix preserving the structure of E-Rate that clarifies Congressional intent and nullifies problematic court interpretations.

We encourage superintendents to read the full transition memo and to provide our team feedback.