WASHINGTON — Civil rights leaders decried the current draft of “No Child Left Behind” legislation on Tuesday, calling it a “disaster.”
‘These proposals bend over backwards to protect the interests of state and local entities that have failed our children,” said Nancy Zirkin, the executive vice president of the conference on Civil and Human Rights. “These include the undermining of targeted funding for low-income children.”
A handful of advocacy group leaders, a parent and a principal spoke this morning on a conference call organized by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Many, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have referred to the bill as an issue of civil rights because it shows how minority students are performing and holds schools accountable.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce plans to hold a markup on the “Student Success Act,” the key formal step before a bill advances to the floor.
This legislation would serve as the reauthorization of “No Child Left Behind,” an education bill that seeks to track the progress of students and promote accountability. It was enacted in 2002 and has not been reauthorized since 2007.
Chanelle Hardy, the executive director at the National Urban League, said she was concerned.
“Years into the [Elementary and Secondary Act] and ‘No Child Left Behind’ framework, we fear that this bill would leave most children behind,” she said. “The solution is actually worse than the status quo and a rollback of the progress we have made over the last fifty years.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has maintained the federal government should not dictate to states how to promote accountability — such as teacher evaluation and testing.
“The government ought to enable and encourage, not mandate, innovation,” Alexander said at a committee hearing last week.
Delia Pompa, the senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization, was both optimistic and pessimistic about the effects of “No Child Left Behind.”
“What was measured, mattered,” she said. “Despite the improvement we have seen, remaining gaps between children of color, low-income students, English learners, and white students must continue to diminish.”
