OPPOSITION TO STRAIGHT A'S AND TEACHER EMPOWERMENT ACTS

WHEREAS, the historic role of the federal government in promoting the national interest in education, including the realization of equal educational opportunity, remains vital and necessary; and

WHEREAS, as a matter of principle and effectiveness, federal education funds should be focused on specific, nationally significant purposes and on programs dedicated to addressing those needs; and

WHEREAS, targeting additional resources to local districts and schools for the express purpose of ensuring equal educational opportunity and academic success for disadvantaged youngsters has been, and continues to be, one of the most crucial aspects of the federal role in education; and

WHEREAS, the chronically meager federal share of total expenditures for elementary and secondary education, now 7 percent, also underscores the importance of targeting federal education program funds on specific needs; and

WHEREAS, needy children are especially dependent on dedicated federal education funds because those funds are more equitably distributed according to need than state education funds and because most states continue to shortchange poor children; and

WHEREAS, even when all sources of education funding are combined, children who need more still get less, so that the highest national priority should be to redress that unfairness by investing in programs and practices that have proven to be educationally effective and thereby accelerate the progress that has been made in improving student achievement; and

WHEREAS, in the rhetorical name of "flexibility," "local control" and "accountability," this Congress, in considering the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is proposing two pieces of legislation, Straight A's and the Teacher Empowerment Act, that would transform critical targeted programs in ESEA into block grants; and

WHEREAS, Straight A's would actually reduce the flexibility of local districts and schools in making education decisions by giving governors and state legislatures the authority to combine targeted federal education funds and redirect them to purposes and local communities of their own choosing, thereby making district and school planning and funding levels uncertain; and

WHEREAS, Straight A's would weaken, rather than improve, accountability by setting low standards for state performance and long timelines for states to report on the effectiveness of their use of federal funds; and

WHEREAS, the inclusion of Straight A's in ESEA also would have the effect of turning Title I, the nation's largest and single-most important program for disadvantaged students, into a block grant and voucher scheme, thereby undercutting 30 years of progress in narrowing the black-white achievement gap and overturning the new focus in Title I on higher standards, proven programs, assistance to struggling students and schools, and accountability that, in just four years, has dramatically accelerated the rate of progress in narrowing the achievement gap; and

WHEREAS, the inclusion of the Teacher Empowerment Act in ESEA, which would blend federal funds now targeted on separate programs for class-size reduction and professional development, would force local districts and schools to choose between addressing one or the other of these critical, interrelated national needs and likely seriously weaken their capacity to do either one well; and

WHEREAS, the history of block grants reveals that when federal education funds go out to the states as a "blank check," targeting on critical national purposes and needs is lost, evaluation of program effects is made virtually impossible, public support dwindles as the purpose of and accountability for federal funds disappears, and, consequently, appropriations for programs that have been turned into block grants quickly drop; and

WHEREAS, by in effect transforming ESEA into a block grant, Straight A's and the Teacher Empowerment Act give political lip service to national education needs and priorities while leaving the capacity to address them to chance, and, considered either together or apart, are a cynical move to do nothing less than radically undercut, if not end, the federal role in education:

RESOLVED, that AFT muster all its grass-roots forces and allies to oppose the Straight A's Act and the Teacher Empowerment Act; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to advocate for a reauthorized ESEA that is focused on demonstrably effective, high-standards-based, educational programs and practices and on targeting resources on the greatest needs; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue its fight for fully funding Title I of ESEA so that all eligible children and schools may be served and so that the impressive achievement gains that have been produced since the last reauthorization of Title I, when the program was dramatically refashioned to focus on high standards and accountability, can be accelerated.