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February 1, 2005

School board members take NCLB message to Hill today

Today is the last day of NSBA's 32nd Annual Federal Relations Network (FRN) conference.

Yesterday, the more than 800 school board members in attendance heard from several members of Congress, including Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who received a special recognition award from NSBA for his work to continue funding for the E-Rate program. "I love your organization," Burns told board members. "You're ground level. You can effect change more than anyone else." School board members also welcomed Senators Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), as well as Representative Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Tom Petri (R-Wis.), who gave their comments.

Representative Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) acknowledged that some parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) lack common sense, pointing to the school transfer option that can be triggered for hundreds or thousands of students just because a few students may have failed to take a test, creating a subgroup adequate yearly progress (AYP) failure. But despite some obvious problems with the law, she predicted Congress would be reluctant to reopen it, as we've noted. Biggert also told school board members that federal education funding had increased substantially, even causing problems with unspent funds in the states—board members clearly weren't buying that last one, and with good reason, as BoardBuzz readers know.

Biggert did concede that Congress had failed to live up to its end of the bargain on special education funding. "You're right. We're wrong," she said. "We are getting there, but not fast enough." Indeed. Thirty years and Congress still hasn't come close to its promised 40 percent share of IDEA costs.

That was a point also emphasized by Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN), who urged board members to go to the Hill Tuesday and ask them, "How are you going to fund special education? Not with promises but with real money." She told board members to hold their Congressional delegation members accountable for their education votes.

Today FRN attendees are doing just that: They are on the Hill visiting with their senators and representatives in Washington. At the top of their agenda is NSBA's proposed legislation to improve the NCLB and to provide increased federal funding for NCLB and IDEA mandates. For more on NSBA's bill, go here and here. The board members are giving each member of their Congressional delegation a Key to Their Schools, with the message that Congress has the means to unlock the door to success and that a good first step would be to visit their schools and see first-hand the challenges the schools are facing.

The FRN conference concludes with today's visits on Capitol Hill.

Posted February 1, 2005 12:00 AM