Senator: Administration dictating standards for school carpeting

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is blasting the Department of Education for issuing guidance on how schools use funds, including on building renovations.

“This administration’s National School Board has gone from telling states what academic standards they should set to, now, making decisions for our school districts about school Wi-Fi hotspots, air conditioning systems, performance art spaces or the quality of the carpeting in the hallways,” Alexander said Thursday.

{mosads}The administration issued the guidance instructing 14,000 local school districts on how to distribute state, local and federal funds so that students have equal access to educational resources. Officials say many students go to school in sub-par facilities.

But critics see the action as overreach and Alexander, the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, urged the administration to rescind the guidance.

He said instead Congress should be able to vote on the proposal and his own legislation that would limit the Department of Education’s authority over public schools.

“Enough is enough,” Alexander said. “Congress needs to take up my legislation, the Every Child Ready for College or Career Act, which every Republican on the Senate education committee supported, and keep these decisions where they belong — in the hands of our state and local leaders.”

Alexander has long been critical of the Obama administration’s education policies.

He has accused the president of trying to form a “national school board” through programs such as Race to the Top, President Obama’s signature education initiative which provides money for innovative programs.