NSBA President: FRN brings NSBA's advocacy message to Congress

By Carol C. Brown

02/24/04 -- Thanks to the 830 dedicated school board members who participated in our Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference earlier this month, our advocacy message is getting through.

In general sessions at the conference and in hundreds of informal meetings across Capitol Hill, members of Congress listened to our concerns and expressed a willingness to work with us to improve federal education programs.

The FRN -- the advocacy arm of NSBA -- is focusing on these four key issues this year:

• increasing the federal investment in public education;

• reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide full funding, eliminate unnecessary administrative requirements, and improve provisions on due process, related services, and other areas;

• addressing the unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); and

• reauthorizing the school lunch program with provisions to strengthen school districts' authority to make decisions about competitive foods, maintain the current income verification process, and improve administrative procedures.

Unfortunately, the Senate office buildings were closed on Feb. 3, our "Day on the Hill," because of the ricin found in mail delivered to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office. This called for a change in logistics but did not slow us down.

Several senators went out of their way to meet with school board members. Sen. Charles F. Schumer (D-N.Y.), for example, came to a House office building to keep an appointment with local school board members from New York, and Sen Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) met in the Capitol reception room with his school board constituents.

During the conference, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) spoke about the need to fully fund IDEA and make IDEA funding mandatory.

Hagel told the FRN members that free, mandatory funding for IDEA would "free up enormous amounts of funding at the state level" and would take pressure off state budgets. He promised to continue to fight for this goal during the current session of Congress.

NSBA also presented special recognition awards to Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) for his efforts during the debates on the reauthorization of Head Start to protect current funding mechanisms for providers, including school districts, and to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) for her opposition to vouchers.

In a speech at the FRN luncheon, Landrieu indicated that the Bush Administration isn't really concerned about helping poor children. Instead, she said, "They want to throw public education into chaos."

Landrieu called education "the most important work of this democracy" and "a matter of national security" and said "the American dream is nurtured by school board members."

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige asked to meet with local school board leaders during the FRN meeting, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to tell him about NSBA's concerns with NCLB and present him with a copy of NSBA's recommendations for legislative and regulatory changes.

Before a room full of school board members, I and my colleagues urged the secretary to improve NCLB so that the accountability system fairly and accurately reflects the performance of school districts in raising student achievement.

Paige spent a full hour with us, responding to questions about adequate yearly progress, private providers, and myriad other issues on school board members' minds.

In addition, Paige invited school board members with questions about NCLB implementation to call the NCLB Superintendents Hotline recently set up by the department -- (888) NCLB-SUP or (888) 625-2787, or write to NCLBSUP@ed.gov.

Over the coming months, NSBA -- along with our Federal Relations Network and the state school boards associations -- will continue to work with the Education Department and Congress to ensure that federal policies and regulations reflect the concerns of local school boards.