We're Filing Suit for Our Kids

[callous taoboy]

Just got this in an e-mail from a colleague who had been a very outspoken supporter of the Bush quagmire for the past few years:


We're Filing Suit for Our Kids

Today, TSTA, NEA, the Laredo ISD, school districts in Michigan and Vermont, and several other state education associations have filed landmark legal action to force the Bush administration to pay the costs of federal rules and regulations, as required under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind law.

When it was passed by Congress, NCLB clearly stated that the Federal Government was not authorized to mandate that a state or local school district spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under the Act. We are taking this action today because that law has been broken. But even more important than violating the law, the federal government has broken a promise to parents, school children and taxpayers.

Instead of working to help our children succeed, the administration of the No Child Left Behind Act has become a tangled web of unfunded mandates and costly federal regulations that drain money from classrooms and spend it on paperwork, bureaucracy and big-bucks testing companies.

This law was supposed to be about accountability, but the same people who demand accountability from our students and local school districts are not being held accountable for the law's most important requirement--that if the federal government imposes regulations on our schools, it has to pay their costs.

Parents and teachers know what works to make a better school for our children: small class sizes, teacher training, up-to-date textbooks and technology, and programs that provide individual instruction for kids with the greatest needs. These proven priorities are being replaced as funds are shifted to pay for high-stakes, high-stress tests that make a tidy profit for private testing companies but don't help children learn.

Since its passage in 2002, Congress has provided $27 billion less than necessary to meet the requirements NCLB has placed on states and local school districts, including an additional cost of $1.2 billion to Texas taxpayers, according to a recent study.

At a time when the state is struggling with its own school finance shortfalls, today's legal action is necessary to make the federal government keep the promise it made to schoolchildren and parents when the No Child Left Behind Law was passed.

For more information go to www.nea.org.

[Liberty Belle]

1. Wonderful news!

Kick!

[Maine-ah]

2. cool! about time someone did this

[jandrok]

3. Thanks for the link

I signed the petition.

[callous taoboy]

4. Go to the NEA link and sign the petition, please! We

need everyone's support on this.

[Gelliebeans]

5. signed it n/t

[tubbacheez]

6. done. kick. nominated. n/t

[Ann Arbor Dem]

15. Done!

and kick

[NYC]

7. Direct link to petition.

Enter your zip code at this link:

http://capwiz.com/nea/issues/alert/?alertid=7400206

[callous taoboy]

8. Many thanks, NYC!

[MelissaB]

9. Thanks

and done. I just sent the link to our principal. :)

[Richard Steele]

10. Signed & sent & nominated

[callous taoboy]

11. Thank you! And please keep this kicked-

Send the petition to family and friends. The heat is on and it is about time. Public school children need your support now more than ever. I have been in the trenches teaching third grade now for 12 years and have never seen so many stressed out kids, teachers, and administrators. Public education could be such a wonderful endeavor, and we are really trying to make it such despite this draconian law that is NCLB. Each year I find myself loosing more of my zeal for teaching and this is a direct result of NCLB.

[alittlelark]

12. Happy to sign it!! n/t

[ancient_nomad]

13. Done...and thank you! n/t

[Eloriel]

14. Excellent.

Please keep us posted.

:kick:

[antigone382]

16. It really is about time

I'm glad some folks are finally calling * to account. Thanks for sharing this, Callous Taoboys

:)