School Board approves resolution calling for reauthorization of ESEA
The Roanoke County School Board passed the following resolution at their June 9 meeting:
Whereas the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as “No Child Left Behind,” is more than three years overdue for reauthorization;
Whereas the current law is widely recognized as flawed and in need of improvement;
Whereas the current accountability requirements will result in more than three quarters of America’s public schools being labeled as “failing” in the coming school year;
Whereas such a drastic misrepresentation of the accomplishments of America’s public schools does more harm than good and undermines the hard work of millions of educators and students across the nation every day;
Whereas America’s public schools and the students they serve deserve relief from the onerous regulations that are widely acknowledged to be both unfair and overly burdensome;
Whereas, in facing the challenge of implementing these complex regulations, school districts across the nation struggle with the rigidity of regulation and are forced to spend resources, both financial and human, on compliance rather than on teaching and learning; and
Whereas it is increasingly unlikely that Congress will be able to complete full reauthorization before the 2011-12 school year and alleviate pressure from both current law and its related regulations;
Be it therefore resolved that we, the undersigned, support reauthorization of the outdated ESEA legislation. With this resolution, we therefore:
Urge — absent Congressional reauthorization — immediate regulatory relief for the 2011-12 school year, and any efforts to rescind or modify current regulations and alleviate undue pressure on the nation’s schools;
Urge the Department of Education to exercise their regulatory authority to relieve school districts from the constraints of current statutes, keeping schools from being held hostage while Congress moves forward with complete reauthorization;
Request that this relief be straight regulatory relief, not waivers. Schools deserve straight regulatory relief, and not the additional requirements or conditions that often come with waivers; and
Specifically support suspension of additional sanctions under current AYP requirements, effective for the 2011-12 school year. (Schools currently facing sanctions would remain frozen; no new schools would be labeled as ‘In Need of Improvement’ or subject to new or additional sanctions.)
(Last updated 6/9/11)