Fwd: Reauthorization bogs down, at least for now

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: James Crawford <jwcrawford@COMPUSERVE.COM>

  Date: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:11:32 AM US/Pacific

  To: ELLADVOC@ASU.EDU

  Subject: Reauthorization bogs down, at least for now

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

  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/07/27/44nclb.h26.html

  Published Online: July 27, 2007

  Key NCLB-Renewal Bills Withheld Until Fall

  As process slows in Congress, campaign debate on law picks up.

  By David J. Hoff and Alyson Klein

  Congress has delayed any significant action on the reauthorization of the No
  Child Left Behind Act until it returns from its summer recess after Labor
  Day.

  Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor
  Committee, announced this week that his committee would not consider an NCLB
  bill next week, the last before lawmakers take their August break.

  Instead of presenting a bill to his committee, Rep. Miller planned to give a
  speech July 30 at the National Press Club in Washington. In it, he was
  planning to tout the success of the 5½-year-old law and explain his
  priorities for reauthorizing it, said Tom Kiley, the congressman’s
  communications director. But Mr. Kiley declined to say how specific the
  chairman would be in the speech.

  Rep. Miller had been preparing to introduce a bill to revise the NCLB law
  before Congress left town.

  The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee had delayed
  consideration of its NCLB-renewal bill while lawmakers in that chamber worked
  on their plans to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and alter federal
  financial-aid programs for college students.

  Civil Rights Letter

  With committees in both chambers waiting until September to produce NCLB
  bills, time is starting to run out for completing the reauthorization of the
  main federal law in K-12 education before the 2008 presidential-primary
  season, which is expected to slow down legislative activity in Congress.

  One issue that may have stalled Rep. Miller’s plans for committee action is
  whether states should be able to use multiple measures to gauge student
  progress under the NCLB law, an overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Act that requires annual testing to determine whether schools are
  doing enough to raise academic proficiency.

  In a memo to freshman members of Congress, circulated on Capitol Hill in
  June, Rep. Miller suggested that states might be permitted to use graduation
  rates and “realtime classroom tests that allow teachers to adjust
  instruction” to meet accountability requirements under the reauthorized law.
  ("NCLB-Renewal Ideas Circulate on Capitol Hill," July 18, 2007.)

  But that idea met with criticism from some civil rights and other advocacy
  groups, which worried it could weaken the law. Five groups sent a letter to
  Rep. Miller and Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of California, the education
  panel’s ranking Republican, outlining their concerns. The Washington-based
  groups include the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank;
  the Education Trust, which advocates for poor and minority children; the
  Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights; the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
  Under the Law; and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy
  group.

  “In our experience, institutions that are held accountable for too many
  things are, in the end, accountable for nothing,” the organizations wrote
  July 13. “Worse still, a system that papers over poor reading and math
  performance with ‘extra credit indicators’ will deny struggling schools the
  additional attention, technical assistance, and financial resources that they
  need to improve.”

  Rep. McKeon cited the letter as one reason he was reluctant to support Rep.
  Miller’s early drafts of a reauthorization bill, according to Steve Forde,
  Mr. McKeon’s spokesman.

  On July 23, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings told a Capitol Hill
  audience that she questioned whether the law should add measures other than
  statewide tests for accountability.

  In her brief presentation to a forum convened by the Congressional Black
  Caucus, she said she would oppose anything she believes would “water down the
  ability of African American kids ... to read on grade level.”

  Responding to reporters’ questions after the event, Ms. Spellings said she is
  not certain that states are ready to implement such complex systems. More
  than five years after the law was enacted, some states “still have issues”
  with implementing the current accountability system, she said.

  Democrats on the ‘Tube’

  If Congress doesn’t renew the NCLB legislation this year, lawmakers would
  likely pass an extension as a formality. That would keep the $23.6 billion in
  federal funding appropriated under the law flowing to school districts.

  The delay also could foretell significant changes for the law, especially if
  a Democrat is elected to succeed President Bush.

  In a July 23 debate at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and in other recent
  forums, Democratic candidates criticized the law’s emphasis on testing and
  what they contend is inadequate funding for it.

  For the debate, co-sponsored by CNN and the YouTube Web site, a participant
  identified as Randy McGirr of Trona, Calif., produced a heavy-metal-style
  video that declared: “NCLB was such a scam. So now tell me, sir or ma’am,
  would you scrap the whole thing or just revise? Tell me the truth, don’t tell
  me no lies.”

  CNN host Anderson Cooper directed the question to just two candidates: Gov.
  Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Sen. Joseph R. Biden of Delaware.

  “I would scrap it. It doesn’t work,” Gov. Richardson said, to applause from
  the audience. “It is not just an unfunded mandate, but the one- size-fits-all
  doesn’t work.”

  Sen. Biden said he had made a mistake in voting for the law in 2001, when it
  passed both houses of Congress with big, bipartisan majorities. He said he
  had done so “against my better instinct” because he had great faith in Sen.
  Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a leading Democratic architect of the
  law, which President Bush had made a top domestic priority. Mr. Kennedy, the
  chairman of the Senate education committee, remains one of the law’s most
  prominent supporters.

  “My wife’s been teaching for 30 years,” Sen. Biden added in his answer at the
  debate. “She has her doctorate in education. She comes back and points out
  how it’s just not working.”

  While other candidates weren’t offered the chance respond to Mr. McGirr’s
  question, several of them have criticized the law in speeches, including
  several who appeared at the National Education Association’s convention this
  month.

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