On December 12th, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee considered Senate bill 3392, Advancing Research in Education Act. The legislation would reauthorize the long-expired Education Sciences Reform Act 2002 that guides the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) including on the collection of statistics and research on the country’s education system. Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) had announced a bipartisan agreement on the introduced bill.
New provisions which include updated definitions of “evidence-based” and “evidence use”(below), allow for a year-long extension to the agency director’s term, and expand federally funded research opportunities. The bill also makes considerable changes to the National Board on Education Sciences (NBES), changing appointment from President to Secretary of Education, reducing the number of members from 15 to nine, and extending terms from four to six years. The term of current IES Director, Mark Schneider, ends in March 2024. (See a redline of the bill here)
Senators offered a range of amendments, including one from Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) to examine school cellphone policies. There was considerable discussion about an amendment offered by Senator Roger Marshall (R-KA), and passed by the committee, that would deny research funds to a K-12 school, state or local education agency as well as any higher education institution that “promotes” antisemitism in violation of the Civil Rights Act. Education policy organizations have argued for the addition of school safety measures, shooting and violence prevention, and incident recovery to the list of research topics eligible for IES funding.
The bill was approved in a 20-1 vote. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made the lone vote against the legislation which will next go to the Senate floor.
