Fwd: Kozol meets with Kennedy on NCLB

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: James Crawford <jwcrawford@COMPUSERVE.COM>

  Date: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:53:30 PM US/Pacific

  To: ELLADVOC@ASU.EDU

  Subject: Kozol meets with Kennedy on NCLB

  Reply-To: James Crawford <jwcrawford@COMPUSERVE.COM>

  This is mildly encouraging. Obviously, Sen. Kennedy is feeling some heat,
  just like Rep. Miller, who recently said NCLB "may be the most tainted brand
  in America." So the key Democrats are ready to abandon the Stay the Course
  position they supported just a few months ago and pass a somewhat revised
  version -- NCLB Lite? -- under a new name. But their willingness to deal
  comes much too late in the political cycle. It still seems unlikely that NCLB
  will be reauthorized before 2009. If then.

  Jim

  http://ed-action.org/news.php?section=letters

  LETTERS FROM JONATHAN

  A series of letters in which Jonathan Kozol will share his personal beliefs
  with our friends and allies.

  Here’s Jonathan’s Report from His Recent Meeting with Senator Ted Kennedy: 

  I met with Ted Kennedy in his Washington office on December 5 and was
  accompanied by the politically savvy woman who was the primary model for
  “Francesca” in my book Letters to a Young Teacher. Both of us left the
  meeting highly optimistic. 

  Senator Kennedy listened carefully to the entire set of sweeping revisions in
  No Child Left Behind that I presented to him, which are summarized in the
  letter I handed him.  I went further than I’ve gone before by ending with the
  suggestion that Congress ought to stop trying to merely “tweak” NCLB but
  should create an essentially new law and get rid of the name “NCLB”
  altogether, in order to break all association with the right-wing punitive
  ideology of the Bush administration.

  In his questions, Kennedy arrowed-in on (1) the punitive and demoralizing
  testing obsession of NCLB, (2) the ways in which a totally new inter-district
  transfer clause could be used to massively increase racial integration and
  counteract the segregative impact of the Supreme Court’s devastating ruling
  on June 28, (3) the establishment of universal pre-K as a pre-condition for
  testing children in third grade or earlier. (He noted favorably that Senator
  Hillary Clinton has proposed a $10 billion increase in federal pre-K funds,
  which would guarantee pre-K to all low-income three- and four-year-olds, less
  than half of whom are being served today.) 

  Our meeting, which was originally planned to run approximately 20 minutes,
  was extended by Kennedy to more than an hour. At that point, the Senator set
  a date to meet with me again in the first week of January, here at his home
  in Boston, to go into further detail on the full range of NCLB changes
  included in my letter. 

  In view of this unexpected offer to meet again so quickly after he’s
  reflected on the changes I presented, I decided it was premature to ask for
  firm commitments. For the same reason, I think I should respect for now the
  Senator’s private thoughts on certain of these issues. I will simply say that
  “Francesca” and I left with the clear belief that Kennedy is by no means
  locked into NCLB’s major premises, as I had initially feared and as his
  staff’s preliminary draft revisions had suggested.

  After leaving Kennedy’s office, I met with Reg Weaver, president of the NEA,
  and nearly his entire staff, in order to report on my immediate reactions.
  Weaver and the NEA have recently intensified their all-out opposition not
  just to specific details but to the entire thrust and ideology of NCLB. While
  the NEA strategists urged me to be realistic in not assuming that Kennedy’s
  apparent responsiveness to my determined pleas will necessarily translate
  into the sweeping legislative actions which the NEA and Education Action! now
  demand, they were impressed that Senator Kennedy, far from being indignant or
  defensive, appeared to be prepared to reconsider some of the most damaging
  aspects, and omissions, in this law—a major breakthrough if this perception
  on my part proves to be correct.

  Any strategic in-put from you education activists that may reinforce my hand
  when I follow up with Senator Kennedy would be tremendously helpful. With Mr.
  Bush greatly weakened as an ineffective lame-duck president, Ted Kennedy,
  because of his seniority and stature, is probably the most influential figure
  in the federal government. I’ll be grateful for your guidance. 

  --Jonathan (December 11, 2007)

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