Legislation at ARPS
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
NOTE: AN IMPORTANT CALL TO ACTION
The American Association of School Administrators has issued an important call to action regarding a new Elementary Secondary Education Act (another name for No Child Left Behind) renewal bill that is currently in the works. Please take a moment to read the information below and to take the steps outlined. This is a chance for our Legislative Action Committee to make our voices heard; however, action is needed now!!!
Thanks!!
House Panel Is Writing New Bill; Contact With Your Member of Congress Is Urgent
AASA's Mary Kusler reports the House education committee staff are well underway in drafting an Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) renewal bill; the key first step toward congressional adoption of a new ESEA. Once a bill is set into print, it becomes very difficult to make alterations.
This makes it essential for you to weigh-in now with your House member, to press him/her to demand that the education panel adopt positive policies that help, not detract local school efforts. For a quick summary of AASA's recommendations, which can help with your congressional conversations, please go to http://www.aasa.org/files/AASA2007ESEATalkingPoints.pdf. Ask your House member to come home and listen to what you and your fellow educators have to say.
We know Corps members are having an impact, because of a report today that House Education & Labor Committee Chair George Miller, D-Calif., met for three hours with 25 representatives, many not on his panel, to discuss their grievances over NCLB.
To reach your House member either call the Capitol operator at 202-224-3121 or find his/her district office number by scrolling down to enter your zip code at our Active Legislative Campaigns Center at http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=AASA.
To give you an idea what your group meeting can do, read this Education Week quote from one of the participants in the Miller talks: The current law is disproportionately geared toward failure, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., told Rep. Miller at the meeting. If there's not substantial revision to the law, I will have no choice but to vote against it. That congressman didn't come up with that idea on his own; he had to hear it from his education constituents who fired him up.