CEC legislative update June 19, 2006
House Appropriations Committee Passes Annual Funding Bill; Cuts Education by $400 Million
Deputy Secretary of Education Testifies at NCLB Congressional Hearing
CEC Members Testify at Commission on NCLB Hearing in Wisconsin
The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Announces Parent Public Policy Fellowship Program 2007
House Appropriations Committee Passes Annual Funding Bill; Cuts Education by $400 Million |
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On Tuesday, June 13, the House Appropriations Committee voted to slash funding for education programs by $400 million, despite loud objections by the education community including CEC and its members. It is expected that the measure – the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for fiscal year 2007 – will not be considered by the full House until later this year, perhaps this fall, though originally it was scheduled to be voted on over the next few weeks. Therefore, all CEC members are urged to take a couple of minutes and contact their Representative by using CEC’s Legislative Action Center! The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill provides funding amounts for labor, health and education programs such as IDEA, the Javits program for students with gifts and talents, Title I, and much more. Unfortunately, many programs received minimal increases, cuts, outright elimination or no change from last year. While IDEA grants to states did receive a minimal increase of $150 million, unfortunately, this is not enough money to keep pace with the program. Even with this increase, the Federal share of educating students with disabilities will decrease from 17.8 percent to 17 percent – a far cry from Congress’ 31-year promise of funding 40 percent of the cost. It is critical that members of Congress hear from CEC members on the vital role that Federal support plays in funding IDEA. Please take a couple of minutes to personalize a letter CEC has already prepared for you by visiting CEC’s Legislative Action Center. In addition, 56 programs were completely eliminated is this proposed bill, including the Javits program for students with gifts and talents. The Javits program is the only federal program that directly funds programs to improve the education of gifted and talented students by supporting a research center and competitive grants to schools across the country. Last year, like this year, the President and the House advocated for the elimination of the Javits program, but thanks to the efforts of CEC members, we were able to preserve funding for the Javits program, though the program was cut by $1.3million. This year we are facing another uphill battle and will need the full backing of CEC members to preserve funding again. Please send a letter titled "Tell Congress to Fund the Javits Program for Students with Gifts and Talents" to your member of Congress using CEC’s Legislative Action Center. 3 Easy Ways You Can Help:
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On June 13, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held its second in a series of hearings focused on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This hearing centered around adequate yearly progress (AYP) and the calculation of subgroups – such as students with disabilities – as a part of this annual measure. Deputy Secretary of Education, Ray Simon; Dr. Ronald Peiffer, Deputy Superintendent for the Maryland State Department of Education; Dr. Cynthia Culman, Principal in Atlanta, Georgia; and John Brittain, The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, all provided testimony at the hearing. Deputy Secretary of Education, Ray Simon, addressed the ongoing discussion regarding the increase in the “n” size of subgroups such as students with disabilities. Simon stated, “States have responded to this requirement [AYP] by setting minimum group sizes, or n-sizes, to determine how many students of a particular population must be enrolled in tested grades in a school for the assessment scores of those students, taken together, to be a reliable basis for making judgments about how well that population is performing academically.” There has been controversy over the actual number of students in a subgroup with critics stating that large subgroup sizes create a way for schools to circumvent AYP measures for those students in a subgroup. In response to this criticism, Simon stated that the Department has only granted one waiver to increase the number of the subgroup size, though it has received numerous requests. CEC is committed to all students with disabilities being included in state and district-wide accountability systems. CEC has developed a policy on Assessment and Accountability to ensure that students with disabilities are appropriately assessed under educational assessment and accountability systems. To read this policy, go to: http://www.cec.sped.org/Content/ContentFolders/PublicPolicy/Assessment-Accountability_Policy.pdf CEC recognizes that there is a small group of students with disabilities, in addition to those students identified under NCLB as having the most significant cognitive disabilities (1% of all students), who should be assessed by an alternate measure that is different from what currently exists today under the NCLB requirements. These students can make progress toward but may not reach grade-level achievement standards. Therefore, CEC has advocated for a longitudinal growth model to be included in the accountability system to allow more focus on individual student achievement. CEC recommends replacing the law's arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success actually achieved by the most effective public schools. In addition, we recommend allowing states to measure progress by using students' growth in achievement as well as their performance in relation to pre-determined levels of academic proficiency. Read more. As Congress prepares to reauthorize – rewrite – No Child Left Behind, CEC wants your input on what changes you would like to make to the law. Click here to submit your comments! Click here to read the press release on the hearing. |
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Two CEC members – Dr. Christy Chambers, President Elect of the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) a division of CEC, and Lisa Bardon of Wisconsin CEC – presented testimony at the last Commission on No Child Left Behind hearing in Madison, Wisconsin on June 9. This hearing, titled Successful Interventions: Helping Schools Achieve Academic Success, marks the fourth regional hearing the Commission has held to gather information as it prepares to make its recommendations on the reauthorization of NCLB. CEC members have submitted verbal and written testimony to the Commission and have taken an active role at the hearings.
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The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Announces Parent Public Policy Fellowship Program 2007 |
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The Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation is seeking parents of persons with mental retardation, intellectual and developmental disabilities for an intensive one-year Public Policy Fellowship in Washington, D.C. During this one year Fellowship, the successful applicant will learn how legislation is initiated, developed, and passed by the Congress, or how programs are administered and regulations promulgated by federal agencies. |
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