by Janie Hydrick

Thank you, AEA members! We’ve been bombarding you in October with requests to call, e-mail, and write letters to tell Congress to slow down on reauthorization of NCLB and get it right this time. At times, it seemed to us that the train had left the station, and that kids and public schools would be left behind yet again. But you did it! You did it! Never doubt the power of a vocal constituency! Your phone calls, e-mails, and letters derailed the train, giving us another opportunity to impact the futures of our students and the crafting of our jobs.

On November 7, Chairman Miller issued a statement on education funding and reauthorization of No Child Left Behind that sounds to me like a tribute to the power of our members’ voices: “All across the country, teachers, school administrators, school board members, and parents are voicing their concerns with the law. They don’t think it makes sense to stay the course. They don’t think it makes sense to preserve the status quo.” It wasn’t just Miller’s Californians voicing their opinions!

Miller’s statement continues, “It is difficult to see how we get a reauthorization bill done in this Congress as long as the President continues to oppose both common-sense improvements to the law and additional education funding.”

The fight has just begun, but at least we’re in the ring! We’ll continue our work on the national and state levels, but remember: although we have the best - the most dedicated, tireless government relations staff - to represent us collectively, it is your individual voices that count the most. It is your voice back home in the Congressional district that ultimately sways politicians and policy. Chairman Miller’s statement is testimony to that!

Thanks again for every call, every e-mail, every letter. Each word from you helped to make the difference. Each word from you brought us closer to leaving a flawed law behind and reauthorizing one that could really hold the promise of great public schools for every child.

Janie Hydrick

The flag of hope that fluttered last November has become tattered for me. Health care for children was vetoed, higher ed opportunities are more expensive and less accessible, and we’re engaged in exhaustive battles for public education and a positive agenda with NCLB.

The only beacon of sanity and hope in all this mess – the only strong advocate for us and our students in these and other issues -- is the National Education Association. No leadership works harder. No government relations staff works harder. And each of us members could not be represented better.

However, as Gandhi and King both realized, there comes a time when the line is drawn in the sand. There comes a time when compromise abrogates integrity, when our core values are tossed aside and trampled. That time is now. We are in the fight of our lives with the NCLB reauthorization. We have principles we cannot sacrifice. Quality public education is truly at risk.

With the support of our e-mails, phone calls, and visits to Congressmen, our leadership and lobbyists have delivered a consistent, values-driven message about NCLB: Fix it and fund it! There is a cumulative $56 billion shortfall that has occurred since 2002. That shortfall continues to be made up by all of us with unfunded working conditions and underfunded learning conditions. But our lines in the sand are not even funding issues. Our lines in the sand include core values regarding pay- for-performance programs. (1) First, there can be NO use of student achievement to evaluate teachers. If a single, high-stakes test is flawed for evaluating students, how additionally stupid can it be to use that test to evaluate teachers? (2) Second, the program cannot bypass collective bargaining. (3) Third, the local union must agree to the program. Arizona has a wide range of pay-for-performance programs in place that support those three core values. Federal meddling and mandating would override those programs and supplant them with programs designed to undermine quality public education.

Watch your e-mails and updates from NEA, AEA, and your local. A six-year reauthorization that violates our values would be a disaster to public education, our members, and our students: a dismantling of public education that would take much more than six years to repair, and educational damage to our students that would be irreversible.

NCLB must have positive changes or not be reauthorized. It would be better to have six more years of the same mantle than six years of a more oppressive yoke.

In her article, "The Case Against Comparability", Kate Walsh argues against an NCLB proposed provision that attempts to equalize funding on a school-by-school basis in order to provide quality teachers in schools with a student population with high poverty rates.

Two items in the Miller-McKeon NCLB reauthorization bill seem to be shoe-ins for making their way into federal law. The impetus behind both is to ensure that districts spend as much on schools serving poor students as they do on schools serving more affluent children. Read more.

Yesterday, NEA President Reg Weaver called on members of the House Education and Labor Committee to reject draft language currently under discussion for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act while testifying to the committee. “We are not able to support the discussion draft as currently written. We are hopeful that the committee will take the time to make meaningful changes.”

Some 40 NEA members and staff leaders, including our own AEA Board Member Janie Hydrick, from around the country joined the NEA president on Capitol Hill to lobby for rejection of the draft language. Members from targeted congressional districts with members on the committee were invited to take part in the attempt to persuade members of Congress not to miss this opportunity to "get it right."

“The draft that has been provided for discussion makes only minor tweaks in the divisive and dysfunctional law that parents, teachers, and public schools have been saddled with these past five years,” says Weaver. “If the committee is not going to make meaningful changes that truly address the needs of America’s public school students, a major opportunity will have been missed.”

Chief among educator concerns with the discussion draft is the continued focus on high stakes testing, punishments, labeling of children, and unfunded federal mandates. Read more about the story

Video of Weaver's testimony
Read entire transcript of Weaver's Testimony

All across Arizona newspapers, radio programs, and the nightly news are talking about NCLB. Read some articles written by AEA members by clicking here.

Have you had an experience telling your story to Congress? Other elected leaders? How did it go?

For more information about writing a letter to the editor of your local paper click here. If you are not sure who to submit your letter to contact the AEA by clicking here.

Use the AEA Legislative Action Center to send your NCLB letter to the editor.