NSBA's Legislative Priorities
NSBA anticipates that the Second Session of the 111th Congress will initially focus its attention on finalizing legislation addressing Health Care Reform, and move quickly to any additional legislation needed to strengthen the nation’s economic recovery. Assuming final passage of Health Care Reform and clear indications that our economy is improving, we expect Congress to refocus attention to assisting state officials and local school boards to improve public schools and the academic performance of all students. Therefore, NSBA’s legislative priorities for 2010 include the following:
Federal Funding
- Fully fund all federally-directed education and related programs.
- Modify the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act of 1995 so that it applies to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Impact Aid, English Language Learners (ELL), early childhood education and other relevant federal statutes.
- Meet the needs of all eligible Title I students and the 40 percent funding commitment to all students with disabilities.
- Preserve the authority of local school boards in the distribution of education related funding through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and in subsequent federal legislation to support economic recovery.
- Advance the application of technology to teaching, learning, data collection and reporting, including adoption of a permanent exemption to the Anti-Deficiency Act or other long-term solution for the E-Rate Program.
- Review the current framework for funding public education in the United States with special attention directed at improving the revenue streams for education and in improving efficiencies in the use of federal, state, and local dollars targeted to public education.
- Assist states and local school boards in addressing facility and infrastructure needs of urban, rural and suburban students, including granting authority to use tax-exempt bonds for school construction and other capital improvements.
- Assist local school districts and schools in fully implementing the Census in Schools Project and other campaigns to support an accurate and complete census count in 2010.
Elementary and Secondary Education Programs
- Provide states and local school boards greater overall flexibility to make educationally sound decisions that achieve improved academic performance by eliminating mandates that hinder school districts from achieving.
- Provide financial and technical assistance to states or groups of states to develop rigorous academic standards.
- Provide financial and technical assistance to states or groups of states to develop high-quality, valid and reliable assessments for every student.
- Provide for the use of multiple measures of academic achievement.
- Provide for the use of growth models and other measures that more accurately differentiate between individual student performance and school/school district/state capacity.
- Support evidence-based initiatives and innovation for schools and school districts.
- Support teacher and principal leadership and effectiveness.
- Amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to authorize changes in status of undocumented immigrant students who graduate from U.S. high schools and have been long-time U.S. residents.
- Amend the Migrant Education Program (MEP) to make funding available to school districts to help educate children of migrant workers regardless of their immigration status or the availability of employment documentation.
Individuals with Disabilities Education
- Continue Medicaid reimbursements to school districts.
- Provide states and local school boards sufficient flexibility in the use of restraints and seclusion for all students; and sufficient resources to states to develop state-approved training for school personnel, including training in de-escalation and on how to build more collaborative efforts.
- Modify requirements for the annual mandatory collection of data for elementary and secondary data for EdFacts by ensuring that definitions of restraints and seclusion and other key terms are consistent with sections 595(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290jj(d).
- Address decisions by certain Circuit Courts regarding IDEA programs with an emphasis on operations related to:
- Parental Revocation of Consent for Special Education Services
- Representation by Non-Attorneys
- Allocation and Use of Funds
- Due Process
- Individual Education Programs (IEP)
- Discipline
- Teacher Quality
Vouchers/Tuition Tax Credits
- Prevent efforts to subsidize tuition or expenses for non-public schools with public tax dollars.
- Prevent expansion of federally funded school voucher programs.
Early Childhood Education, Health and Nutrition
- Expand access to high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten programs for three- and four-year old students.
- Expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
- Provide financial and technical assistance to states and local school districts to address issues adversely affecting the health and school environment of students, including support for “green” schools, without restricting the authority of local school districts.