This week in Washington, DC, Senator Christopher Dodd (Connecticut)
and Representative Chaka Fattah (Philadelphia) are introducing
the Student Bill of Rights Act (S2912) in both houses of Congress.
ACCESS is supporting this proposed legislation because it is
intended to hold states accountable for providing all students
with the educational resources needed to enable them to: meet
their state's academic requirements; become participating citizens;
and compete successfully in the global economy.
The Student Bill of Rights would compel states to ensure that all schools
have the resources necessary to provide meaningful educational opportunities
to their students and to comply with court decisions concerning educational
adequacy. The required resources, termed "fundamentals of educational
opportunity," include highly qualified teachers and principles, small
class sizes, libraries and materials, appropriate curricula, technology,
guidance counselors, and safe facilities. There is broad consensus that
these educational resources have an enormous positive impact on achievement,
especially for disadvantaged students.
Passage of the Student Bill of Rights is critical to the educational
success of millions of low-income, rural, and urban schoolchildren
across the country, who until now have been left behind by inadequate
and inequitable school funding. At a time when states are announcing
their "schools in need of improvement" under the No Child Left
Behind Act, it is incumbent on federal and state governments
to determine what educational resources are missing from these
schools and to provide those resources. "No Child Left Behind"
(for a summary and analysis of NCLB, see the ACCESS
NCLB pages) requires schools to meet ambitious achievement
goals for all students but does not provide the financial support
to make these goals attainable for under-funded schools. The
Student Bill of Rights can go a long way towards bridging the
gap between the goals set for schools and their capacities to
meet those requirements.
Prepared September 5, 2002
National Access
Network, Teachers College, Columbia University. Copyright 2001-2008.
