July 11, 2007: Letter to Ranking Member Howard McKeon, House Committee on Education and Labor

July 11, 2007

The Honorable Howard “Buck” McKeon
United States House of Representatives
2351 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act

Dear Representative McKeon:

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), representing over 95,000 local school board members across the nation, commends you for your continuing support to public education and for your leadership in helping local schools within your congressional district. We have had a strong and continuing relationship with you for many years and have always welcomed the opportunity to have you address our membership.

Today, we seek your support as the Representative from the 25th congressional district in California, and as the Ranking Member of the House Education and Labor Committee, in ensuring that the House of Representatives adopts a bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act during this First Session of the 110th Congress. We are aware of the Committee’s strong interest in adopting a reauthorization bill within the coming weeks, and we encourage your continued leadership in achieving this goal. Local school boards within your congressional district and across the nation are very concerned that any delays in the reauthorization will adversely impact our local schools for several reasons:

  • The goals and objectives of the ESEA/NCLB cannot be achieved without addressing the barriers to full implementation that we have identified based on five years of experience and an in-depth understanding of the flaws of the current law as well as the unintended consequences.
  • The current accountability and assessment systems fail to accurately or fairly reflect the performance or progress of students, schools or school districts resulting in too many of our schools and school districts being identified as “failing”.
  • More schools will unnecessarily progress to more severe and costly sanctions due to the flawed system which will force us to redirect already limited funds away from those students and schools most in need.
Secondly, we seek your support to ensure that the final bill adopted by the House Education and Labor Committee incorporates the provisions contained in the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2007, H.R. 648. As you are aware, local school boards in your congressional district have advised you of their actions in passing resolutions endorsing the provisions contained in H.R. 648, and have urged you as their Representative to respond positively to their request.

This comprehensive bill, H.R. 648, was based on input from local school boards and introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AR). Additionally, H.R. 648 has strong bipartisan co-sponsorship from Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR-4), Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11), Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA-3), Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA-19), Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ-9), and Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL-1).

After five years of implementation local school board members are convinced that the current ESEA/NCLB law can be amended to eliminate barriers to full implementation while maintaining the core principle to improve the academic achievement of all students. By incorporating our recommendations into the House reauthorization bill, Congress would:

  • Ensure significant improvements in the validity and reliability of assessments for all students, particularly those students with disabilities and those not proficient in English;
  • Foster increased accuracy and fairness in public reporting of student, school, and school district performance;
  • Allow schools and school districts to target resources to those students who need the most attention; and
  • Eliminate the overbroad negative labeling of schools and school districts; and
  • Restore public confidence in the nation’s public schools.
Thank you again for your support. Questions concerning our recommendations may be directed to Reginald M. Felton, director of federal relations at 703-838-6782, or by e-mail, rfelton@nsba.org.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Resnick
Associate Executive Director
 
 
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