Senate Concurrent Resolution 105

PAG LIN

  1  1          SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. ___
  1  2    BY  CONNOLLY, DVORSKY, QUIRMBACH, KREIMAN, BLACK,
  1  3   STEWART, WARNSTADT, BOLKCOM, DOTZLER, RAGAN, SENG,
  1  4   HOLVECK, COURTNEY, GRONSTAL, KIBBIE, FRAISE, HORN,
  1  5            DEARDEN, BEALL, HATCH, and McCOY
  1  6 A Concurrent Resolution encouraging the Congress of the
  1  7    United States to amend the No Child Left Behind Act
  1  8    of 2001 immediately to include a mechanism for an
  1  9    automatic waiver from its provisions for school
  1 10    accountability for states such as Iowa that have
  1 11    successfully increased student achievement through
  1 12    their own student achievement and teacher quality
  1 13    measures and accountability reforms.
  1 14    WHEREAS, in its recent report, "Report Card on
  1 15 American Education:  A State=by=State Analysis, 1976=
  1 16 2001", the American Legislative Exchange Council
  1 17 ranked Iowa fourth in its list of top four performing
  1 18 public elementary and secondary schools in the nation,
  1 19 as measured by several standardized tests; and
  1 20    WHEREAS, Iowa's nationally significant, landmark
  1 21 legislation, the Student Achievement and Teacher
  1 22 Quality Act, was enacted in 2001, providing statewide
  1 23 teaching standards, a statewide mentoring and
  1 24 induction program, career development planning and a
  1 25 career path for teachers, and evaluator training; and
  1 26    WHEREAS, the comprehensive school improvement plan
  1 27 each school district and accredited nonpublic school
  1 28 is required to submit to the Department of Education
  1 29 has improved the accountability of Iowa's schools; and
  1 30    WHEREAS, the Department of Education's management
  2  1 information system has made reporting by school
  2  2 districts and accredited nonpublic schools more
  2  3 consistent and accessible; and
  2  4    WHEREAS, Iowa's General Assembly and its Governor
  2  5 created in 1999 the Iowa Early Intervention Block
  2  6 Grant Program, and appropriated over a five=year
  2  7 period $120 million for the program, the purpose of
  2  8 which is to reduce class sizes in basic skills
  2  9 instruction to the state goal of 17 students for every
  2 10 one teacher, provide direction and resources for early
  2 11 intervention efforts by school districts to achieve a
  2 12 higher level of student success in the basic skills,
  2 13 especially reading skills, and increase communication
  2 14 and accountability regarding student performance; and
  2 15    WHEREAS, in 2001, Congress enacted and the
  2 16 President signed into law the No Child Left Behind
  2 17 (NCLB) Act, which has as its announced purpose
  2 18 bringing high academic standards in reading and math
  2 19 and test=based accountability for achievement of those
  2 20 standards to schools that do not have accountability;
  2 21 and
  2 22    WHEREAS, while NCLB has a laudable purpose and may
  2 23 impose needed standards and accountability in states
  2 24 that have failed to hold their schools accountable for
  2 25 student achievement, the federal law is misapplied to
  2 26 Iowa, a state which has led the nation in student
  2 27 achievement levels for years and which has a lengthy
  2 28 history of student accountability through its use of
  2 29 the Iowa test of basic skills and the Iowa test of
  2 30 educational development; and
  3  1    WHEREAS, no provision in NCLB permits the granting
  3  2 of waivers from the NCLB mandates to states such as
  3  3 Iowa, which have such a history of significant success
  3  4 in maintaining high levels of student achievement; and
  3  5    WHEREAS, while NCLB contains expensive mandates
  3  6 that the United States Congress has not sufficiently
  3  7 funded, leaving the state and its schools to pay much
  3  8 of the costs of the federal mandate while state aid
  3  9 for the state's proven educational programs is at risk
  3 10 in these weak economic times; and
  3 11    WHEREAS, it is clear that NCLB represents the most
  3 12 sweeping federal intrusion into state and local
  3 13 control of education in the history of the United
  3 14 States, which egregiously violates the time=honored
  3 15 American principles of balanced federalism and respect
  3 16 for state and local prerogatives, especially in the
  3 17 crucial area of education; and
  3 18    WHEREAS, the successful welfare reform model was
  3 19 not followed by NCLB, being the model in which states
  3 20 that met the basic principles of the welfare reform
  3 21 law enacted in 1996 by the Congress were allowed
  3 22 waivers from the law to encourage state innovation and
  3 23 flexibility in meeting the federal law's broad goals;
  3 24 NOW THEREFORE,
  3 25    BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, THE HOUSE OF
  3 26 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, That the Congress of the
  3 27 United States is urged to amend the No Child Left
  3 28 Behind Act immediately to include a mechanism for a
  3 29 waiver from its provisions for school accountability
  3 30 which shall automatically be granted to states such as
  4  1 Iowa that have successfully increased student
  4  2 achievement through their own efforts and reforms; and
  4  3    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That such a waiver be
  4  4 available to these states so long as they maintain
  4  5 their proven educational programs and reforms and do
  4  6 not retreat from or weaken them; and
  4  7    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the
  4  8 Senate transmit copies of this Resolution to the
  4  9 President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of
  4 10 the United States House of Representatives, and to the
  4 11 members of Iowa's congressional delegation, that they
  4 12 may be apprised of the sense of the Iowa General
  4 13 Assembly in this matter.
  4 14 LSB 6399XS 80
  4 15 kh/gg/14