Northside trustees support changes to federal education law

NISD joins grassroots effort to lobby Congress to pass NCLB Improvements Act of 2007

The Northside Board of Trustees has united with school districts nationwide to push for significant improvements to the current federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.

To show support for changes, the Board passed a resolution in support of H.R. 648, the NCLB Improvements Act of 2007. The bill, which has received bipartisan support, includes more than 40 provisions to improve NCLB and includes all of the recommendations from the National School Boards Association.

The draft legislation, H.R. 648, was developed based on input from local school boards across the nation and is designed to improve the implementation of NCLB.

The bill would:

• Grant greater flexibility to states and local school districts;
• Allow schools and school districts to target resources to those students who need the most attention;
• Eliminate the mislabeling of schools related to performance;
• Restore public confidence in the nation’s public schools; and
• Improve testing for all students, particularly those students with disabilities and those not proficient in English.

Once passed, the resolution was sent to U.S. representatives Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez and U.S. senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lamar Smith as well as the Texas commissioner of education, who are urged to fully support the bill.

In addition to Northside, more than 300 school districts in 38 states have passed similar resolutions in support of the bill.