Nationwide Network of State Advocates for Education
Turn Eyes Towards NCLB
The "No
Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) is markedly altering
the education landscape. By requiring schools to push
all of their students to dramatically increasing levels
of achievement, the Act has put in place an ambitious
system of assessments and sanctions, among other requirements.
Because its stated goals are to raise student achievement
and close the achievement gap, NCLB seems to be aligned
with the central aims of the Education Adequacy Movement,
which strives for access to equal and adequate educational
opportunity for all students, especially poor and minority
students who are currently denied that opportunity.
Adequacy lawsuits - the progeny of Brown v. Board of
Education - have been filed in 45 or the 50 states,
and advocates in many states are working for reform
in conjunction with those suits or despite the absence
of a suit.
Groups and individuals, leaders in the national Education
Adequacy Movement, are fighting for better public education
state by state in almost every state. Although their
work is often based on the education provisions of state
constitutions that require states to provide adequate
schooling, it has now led them to focus also on NCLB
and its implementation, as some aspects of the federal
law provide additional support for their efforts, while
other aspects of NCLB seem to evidence an ignorance
of the ample evidence - provided by real-world experiences
in the "laboratory of the states" - about
the hard work of actually enacting and implementing
meaningful reforms that improve schools and student
achievement.
CAMPAIGN FOR FISCAL EQUITY, INC.
The Campaign
for Fiscal Equity (CFE) is a non-profit coalition
of parent organizations, advocacy groups, and concerned
citizens founded over 10 years ago to seek reform of
New York State's education finance system that will
ensure adequate resources and the opportunity for a
sound basic education for New York students. CFE is
also committed to an innovative public engagement process
that has spawned statewide support for school funding
reform to help students across the state reach New York's
high academic standards.
A few years ago, CFE launched its national initiative,
the ACCESS Network with the mission of promoting "access
to meaningful educational opportunity for all children."
ACCESS supports the network and the nationwide Education
Adequacy Movement by conducting research, developing
strategies and models, and by providing information
and analysis of key issues in litigation, policy and
advocacy, including NCLB.
CFE and NCLB
CFE/ACCESS provides coverage of NCLB, related policy
reports, and links to other informative sites on its
national
website and in a semi-monthly e-newsletter. On November
11 and 12, ACCESS will host a conference on "NCLB:
Developing a Common Agenda for Reform." At the
conference, members of the state-by-state nationwide
Education Adequacy Movement will join leaders of national
education organizations and experts in capacity building,
costing-out an adequate education, and other important
issues to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this
federal law and proposals for change. Among those participating
in the NCLB conference will be the executive director
of the Education Law Center, in New Jersey, and the
lead litigator for plaintiffs in the Nebraska adequacy
lawsuit.
EDUCATION LAW CENTER
The Education
Law Center (ELC) is a long-standing advocate for
New Jersey's schoolchildren, striving to ensure equal
and adequate educational opportunity for the children
in the state's 30 high-need school districts. ELC has
a long history of pursuing these goals in court, acting
as plaintiffs' counsel in the historic Abbott v. Burke
case. This lawsuit won improved funding for the most
under-resourced, urban school districts in New Jersey,
and recent Abbott court decisions have resulted in "parity
funding" with suburban schools, improved facilities,
and extensive, high quality preschool opportunities,
giving New Jersey children what ELC describes as "the
most comprehensive set of educational rights anywhere
in the nation."
ELC and NCLB
Given its critical role in spurring adoption of reforms
that are improving New Jersey's urban school districts,
ELC has gained expertise on issues directly relevant
to reaching NLCB's very high goals. ELC's knowledge
of quality preschool and other programs and services
designed to raise student achievement, as well as its
appreciation for the need to involve parents and members
of school communities in school improvement efforts,
bear on considerations of NCLB, its implementation,
and potential revisions to the law.
NEBRASKA SCHOOLS TRUST
After years of trying to persuade the Nebraska legislature
to rewrite the state's school finance system, the Nebraska
Schools Trust and other plaintiffs filed an adequacy
lawsuit in state court against the governor and other
state officials on June 30, 2003. Plaintiffs in Douglas
County School District v. Johanns allege that the
state funding system is unconstitutional because it
"fails to provide the resources required to afford
thousands of public school students . . . the opportunity
to obtain the free instruction guaranteed by Nebraska's
Constitution and laws, and an equal opportunity to meet
the academic standards set by law."
Students - as well as the future of the State of Nebraska
- are harmed, plaintiffs claim, because students are
placed "at grave risk of failure to become active
and productive citizens in our democracy, to find meaningful
employment and to qualify for higher education."
The Trust and NCLB
According to plaintiffs, Nebraska has adopted sound
educational standards and goals but does not adequately
fund schools to enable them to provide the programs
and services necessary for students to reach those standards
and goals. These claims are similar to claims by educators
in response to NCLB, that is, that its intensions to
raise achievement and close the achievement gap are
fine, but that it is hugely under-funded.
The complaint
filed by the Trust was the first to integrate NCLB's
requirements and assessment results with state standards
and educational resources to support a claim that the
current funding system prevents schools, especially
those educating "at-risk" students, from providing
a genuine opportunity to reach the goals that state
and federal laws have set for them. Only by providing
quality teaching, smaller class sizes, and adequate
books, materials, and facilities, plaintiffs contend,
can Nebraska's schools hope to have sufficient capacity
to build toward proficiency under NCLB; only by obtaining
sufficient funding can the schools provide these elements.
Based on their expertise and experience, the potential
is great for state advocates to impact proposals for
improving federal education law.
Prepared by Molly A. Hunter, October 14, 2004
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