Fwd: [arn2-strategy] Bush Plans NCLB Five-Year Anniversary Celebration

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Please tell your Congresspeople what you think. Fast.
Susan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>
> Date: Fri Jan 5, 2007  4:27:18 AM US/Pacific
> To: ARN Main List <arn-l@interversity.org>,  arn2-strategy 
> <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [arn2-strategy] Bush Plans NCLB Five-Year Anniversary 
> Celebration
> Reply-To: arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
>
> BUSH TO SEEK RENEWAL OF EDUCATION LAW
>
> Associated Press -- January 4, 2007
> by Nancy Zuckerbrod
>
> President Bush plans to meet with lawmakers next week to boost efforts
> to renew the No Child Left Behind education law, according to a
> Democratic congressional aide.
>
> The top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate committees
> that deal with education issues planned to attend the White House
> meeting Monday, the aide said on the condition of anonymity because the
> White House had not announced the session.
>
> Monday is also the day the Bush administration is commemorating the
> fifth anniversary of what is widely considered the most significant
> federal education law in decades.
>
> Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, in an interview with The
> Associated Press on Wednesday, said she was optimistic the law would be
> renewed for five more years. She said it is a natural issue on which
> Bush and Democrats, who won control of Congress in November, can come
> together.
>
> "It's on everybody's list of things where we might forge agreement as 
> we
> have done before," she said.
>
> The law seeks to ensure that all children can read and do math at grade
> level by 2014, which has placed unprecedented demands on schools. They
> have been required to step up testing, raise teacher quality and place
> more attention on the achievements of minority children.
>
> Poor schools that get federal aid but do not make enough progress must
> provide tutoring, offer public school choice to students or initiate
> other reforms such as overhauling their staffs.
>
> Spellings said there were a few "bright-line principles" that the
> administration would not agree to alter under a rewrite of the law.
> Among them is the requirement that all students are proficient in
> reading and math by 2014 - a goal many observers call unrealistic.
>
> Spellings said the administration was open to debating how student
> achievement should be measured. Critics, including the teachers' 
> unions,
> have said the current law does not give enough credit to schools that
> make significant strides in student achievement but fall short of
> reaching an annual target.
>
> "There is too much punishing going on," said Reg Weaver, president of
> the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the
> country. Weaver also called the law "grossly underfunded."
>
> Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who
> are to lead the committees overseeing education, say the administration
> has provided about $50 billion less than originally called for by 
> Congress.
>
> Republicans say it is common practice for legislation to be funded at
> less than the full level Congress authorizes.
>
> Spellings declined to preview the amount Bush would seek when he
> releases his annual budget in February. She did indicate an interest in
> getting more money to teachers who work in schools that have difficulty
> attracting people.
>
> Bush sought $500 million from Congress for that purpose last year and
> got about $100 million.
>
> "Our best teachers, or are most experienced teachers, are in places 
> with
> our least challenged learners," Spellings said.
>
> Spellings also reaffirmed the administration's view that the law, which
> focuses on early and middle grades, should be expanded in high schools.
>
>
>
>
>
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