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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
Text: SCR00104 Text: SCR00106 Text: SCR00100 - SCR00199 Text: SCR Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
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