AFT to Congress:
Address NCLB Problems if Education Department Takes No Action

Washington -- If the U.S. Department of Education fails to address serious and continuing problems with the No Child Left Behind law, Congress must take action so that the important goals of the law can be realized and to ensure that schools’ progress will not be stymied, American Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman said in a letter to members of Congress.

“The Department must address growing concerns and implement the law in a manner that solves serious problems and is consistent with the intent of the legislation - without the overlay of ideology,” Feldman said in the letter sent last week. “If the Department does not take action, we believe that the U.S. Congress, which overwhelmingly supported the legislation, should do so.”

The letter noted AFT’s firm commitment to NCLB’s goals and its framework for standards and accountability. But failure to provide accurate and timely guidance to states on several key areas of the law will “threaten to undermine” the goals, the AFT said in urging prompt action. The letter lists several specific implementation problems that must be solved.

The AFT letter is available on the AFT Web site at:
http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/downloads/ImplementationLetter.pdf.

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The AFT represents more than 1.3 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and other school support employees, higher education faculty, nurses and other healthcare workers, and state and local government employees.