No one is calling it perfect, but comprehensive education legislation signed into law this year offers some hope for the nation's schools, says AFT president Sandra Feldman.

The law, a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), sailed through the House of Representatives by a 381-41 vote on Dec. 13 and also won by an impressive 87-10 vote in the Senate a few days later. The new law gives Congress a green light to hike funding for Title I, and lawmakers followed through a few days after passage by approving a hefty 18 percent annual increase in Title I. ESEA, the centerpiece federal law for K-12 education, also features new initiatives to help young children become effective readers, to boost accountability for student progress, and to help develop and implement high standards around core academic areas. The law also will spur the creation of professional development that can help educators teach to high academic standards. The AFT has a long history of supporting all of these reforms.

"The basic framework of this legislation builds on what was started in the last reauthorization and includes reforms that the AFT has championed," Feldman says. "At the same time, it is safe to say, as with any legislation of this magnitude that encompasses so many components, there may be a number of elements we wish had been included that were not."

A major disappointment was the failure of Congress to include an amendment guaranteeing that the federal government would pick up its fair share of the special education tab. A House-Senate conference committee ultimately rejected the proposal, despite strong backing from the AFT, other education groups and advocates for children with disabilities.

But some of the bill's omissions were unmitigated victories for the AFT and its allies in public education. AFT lobbying at the national, state and local levels helped persuade lawmakers to leave private school vouchers out of the legislation. Also missing were schemes that would give states a "blank check" that would allow them to distribute federal funds without any accountability. Congress also dropped efforts to require testing of veteran teachers and proposals that would undermine the vital role of paras under Title I.

Keeping watch

Certainly one of the most widely publicized features of the new ESEA will be student testing and accountability.

The new law requires states to test students in grades 3 through 8 annually in reading and math and to track the progress of schools and of individual students. States also will be required to devise a 12-year plan, detailing annual progress to make students proficient in these two subjects. The children of parents in schools that fail for three consecutive years would be entitled to receive supplemental educational services, including private tutoring. Schools that fail for four straight years could see changes in staff and curriculum under the new law.

Although the AFT supports testing, the union recognizes the new mandates will impose additional burdens on schools already feeling the pinch from shrinking state and local government budgets. Substantial funding is needed to ensure that the new tests are high-quality examinations and fully aligned with curricula. The new ESEA does include modest funding for test development--as well as a "trigger" on minimum funding that must be available before the tests are required. These safeguards notwithstanding, the union has pledged to closely monitor testing requirements to ensure that their aim is school improvement, rather than blame, finger pointing or overtesting of students.

"We are very hopeful that, in implementing the testing requirement, states will not duplicate existing assessments and overtest students," Feldman says. The union will "closely monitor the way in which these new requirements are implemented."

American Federation of Teachers, AFL•CIO - 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20001