Federal Legislative Update Archives
April 1999
[Return to Legislative Action Center]

April 30, 1999
April 23, 1999
April 16, 1999
April 2, 1999

4/30/99
[return to top]

News from Capitol Hill...

PROTECTING PRECIOUS LIVES

Lessons Learned from School Tragedies

From policy and psychology to resolutions and research, NEA provided help this week to grieving communities and to anxious communities. Even as we continued to mourn the tragedy of Littleton, the copycat syndrome spawned anonymous threats and more violence. Public policy debates turned to gun legislation, the entertainment industry, juvenile justice issues, the responsibilities of parents and of schools, and societal problems, in a search for answers to stem the violence.

Ratcheting up support for programs that promote safety, order, and discipline and that prevent violence in and around schools and campuses is an NEA priority. Beverly Ausfahl, Colorado Education Association president, spoke about Littleton to House and Senate Democratic leaders in private session. She shared her own school safety experience and put forward ideas on how Congress can best address the web of issues involved in school violence. The President’s FY2000 budget requests $12 million for "Project SERV" – a program to help school districts confronting these types of tragedies. Key provisions of the Children’s Gun Violence Prevention Act of 1999 (S. 735/H.R. 1342), introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), would create children’s gun violence prevention education programs and extend the juvenile handgun ban to semiautomatic assault weapons. NEA’s quality public schools agenda includes school modernization for safer facilities; class size reduction for improved discipline and early intervention; and efforts to improve and reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Promotion Act. “None of us can afford to be bystanders any longer. The children of America count on us to keep them safe, teach them, and help them grow,” NEA President Bob Chase said, as he called for parents, schools, law enforcement agencies, and communities together to insure our children’s safety. Visit the NEA Safe Schools site at http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho.

By serendipity, the Project Star class size reduction project released its latest report this week, a strong affirmation of the positive effects smaller classes have on learning. Experience and common sense affirms related benefits as well – improved discipline and increased opportunities to identify troubled children for whom hope lies in early intervention. [Story follows]

DO SMALLER CLASSES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

You bet! Right through high school graduation!

Parents and teachers know it intuitively. The research affirms it. Smaller classes increase student achievement. This week, researchers from Project STAR, the Tennessee-based class size reduction research project, released their latest findings. The bottom line: an investment in small classes in grades K-3 pays dividends right through high school graduation!

Project STAR involved some 6,500 students per year between 1985 and 1989 who were placed in small classes (13-17 students), large classes (22-25 students), and large classes with aides. The students in small classes outperformed their large-class counterparts in both reading and math.

STAR revisited the students in the mid-90s. The students who had spent three or four years in smaller classes from Kindergarten through 3rd grade were STILL outperforming their peers.

A new look at the STAR database shows that the students in small classes in K-3 were anywhere from 6 to 14 months ahead of their large-class peers in math, reading, and science in each of grades 4, 6, and 8.

The STAR students have now left high school. STAR researchers revisited them again and this week reported that the students in small classes in grades K-3:

1. had higher high school graduation rates and lower dropout rates than their large-class peers; and

2. were more likely to take the SAT and ACT tests, indicating that more small-class students are now attending college.

Reams of research and common sense dictate that smaller class sizes promote student achievement, improve discipline and classroom order, and expand quality learning time. NEA President Bob Chase has called on Congress to consider the evidence that stacks up in favor of reduced class size and support the National Class Size Initiative.

The Congressional Agenda

Last year, President Clinton proposed to fund the hiring of 100,000 new teachers over seven years to reduce class size. NEA supported this proposal. While Congress did not approve the President’s plan, it did fund a $1.2 billion down payment as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 99 appropriations. These funds, available for the 1999-2000 school year, will pay for 30,000 new teachers. Funding data for the largest 20 school districts in your state is available online at www.ed.gov/inits.

Will the 106th Congress Support Class Size Reduction? The President’s FY2000 budget proposal includes $1.4 billion to pay the second year cost of the first 30,000 teachers and to hire 8,000 additional teachers. However, the FY2000 Budget Resolution, the budget blueprint approved by Congress on the eve of the April recess, does not include the class size reduction initiative. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA), S. 564, and Representatives Bill Clay (D-MO) and David Wu (D-OR) have introduced proposals to provide $11.3 billion over six years to hire 100,000 new teachers. NEA Executive Committee member Denise Rockwell addressed a Congressional hearing this week in support of these proposals to reduce class size because of the positive effects on teaching and learning. For Denise Rockwell’s Congressional testimony, go to www.nea.org/lac and click on Congressional Testimony.

ADVOCACY IN ACTION! -- MAKING THE SYSTEM WORK FOR CHILDREN AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

Class Size Reduction

Our real life stories and our most effective messages to lawmakers. Tell your U.S. representative and senators what the opportunity to teach and learn in smaller classes means to you and your students. Urge them to support the national Class Size Initiative. You can send your message directly from the NEA Legislative Action Center at www.nea.org/lac.

The E-Rate

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will act shortly on E-Rate funding for Year Two. Schools and libraries have requested an estimated $2.435 billion dollars for E-Rate discounts. If the E-rate program receives only level funding, over one billion dollars in discount requests will go unfilled. Send FCC and your U.S. Representative and Senators a message: Give our students access to modern technology for learning by fully funding the E-Rate discount requests. For FCC: William E. Kennard, Chairman at wkennard@fcc.gov. For your U.S. Representative and Senators: www.nea.org/lac.

NEWS BRIEFS

Social Security – A bipartisan voice for public employees
Kudos to Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and George Voinovich (R-OH) who initiated a letter with the support of 10 Senate colleagues, urging the President to drop any consideration of mandatory participation in the Social Security program by public employees, including teachers and education employees. The 10 senators who joined with them and added their signatures are: John Ashcroft (R-MO), Wayne Allard (R-CO), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Richard Bryan (R-NV), Ben Campbell (R-CO), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), and Ted Kennedy (D-MA).

Modern Schools - A Bipartisan Perspective
“The fact that there are so many bills … on both sides of the aisle means people are recognizing there is a severe need out there,” noted Jeff Simering of the Council of Great City Schools. A 1995 report by the General Accounting Office showed that one-third of the nation’s schools needed repairs costing some $112 billion. Congressional lawmakers have introduced 11 proposals to date.

Gear Up! -- NEA Members Partner to Bring the
Program Home
NEA helped “gear up” students for success last year by winning support for early college preparation and awareness activities in the Higher Education Amendments of 1998. Gear Up (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) makes available state and local competitive grants to support awareness and preparation. Now NEA members can build on this partnership by serving as grant readers. June 1 is an orientation day for all readers. Each reader will then receive five applications for review from June 2 to 8 at $50 per application. For information about becoming a grant reader, contact Kerry Klass, Director of the Gear Up Program, U.S. Department of Education, 202-205-7869 or Sylvia Ross, 202-708-4650.

4/23/99
[return to top]

News from Capitol Hill...

The E-Rate - Advocacy in Action!

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will act shortly on E-Rate funding for Year Two. Schools and libraries have requested an estimated $2.435 billion dollars for E-Rate discounts. If the E-rate program receives only level funding, over one billion dollars in discount requests will go unfilled.

Send FCC and your U.S. Representatives and Senators a message:
Give our students access to modern technology for learning by fully funding the E-Rate discount requests. For FCC: William E. Kennard, Chairman at wkennard@fcc.gov. For your U.S. Representative and Senator: www.nea.org/lac

The E-Rate, short for education rate, is an acronym for the federal universal Service Fund that provides a 20 percent to 90 percent discount on telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal connections to schools, both public and private, and libraries. The education community fought hard for the program, almost lost it in Year One (1998), and successfully kept it alive, but with sharply reduced funding. More than 30,000 applications were filed requesting approximately $2.04 billion. In response, only $1.66 billion was committed. This year more than 32,000 applications were filed in the window period that closed April 6.

A Bipartisan Voice for School Improvement --

The Comprehensive School Improvement and Accountability Act of 1999 -- This proposal comes with tools to increase student achievement!

S. 824, the comprehensive education bill introduced last week by the bipartisan team of Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR), is distinguished from many other accountability-based proposals by providing resources for state-designed programs to increase student achievement. The Smith-Kerry bill includes a total of $23.274 billion over five years for standards-based programs, early childhood education, alternative programs for disruptive students, after-school programs, community service, professional development for principals, teacher quality, and public school choice. Further, the bill increases authorized funding for Title I, 21st Century Community Learning Centers (after-school programs), and Teacher Quality programs. Congress would then decide whether to appropriate a higher level of funding for these programs. Bipartisan co-sponsors include Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), Richard Bryan (D-NV), John Chafee (R-RI), Max Cleland (D-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Edwards (D-NC), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Carl Levin (D-MI), and Patty Murray (D-WA).

What you can do:

1. Send a message to your Senators asking them to co-sponsor the Smith-Kerry bill.
   

2. Senators Kerry and Smith are seeking House sponsors for a companion bill. Ask your Representative to introduce or co-sponsor a companion bill in the House.

Standards become a meaningful tool to increase student achievement when they are coupled with the resources to help students achieve them.

The Week’s News Briefs

Social Security – A bipartisan voice for public employees
Kudos to Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and George Voinovich (R-OH) who initiated a letter to the President that urges the President to drop any consideration of mandatory participation in the Social Security program by public employees, including teachers and education employees.

Ed-Flex - Lott amendment out, discipline in, good news for rural schools!
The Ed-Flex bill, expanding the flexible use of federal education program dollars passed the House and the Senate this week. The final Ed-Flex bill removed the Lott Amendment that pitted one group of students supports full funding for special education AND for class-size reduction. NEA opposed the Lott amendment that undermined both.

The final bill includes 1) an amendment to the IDEA statute to clarify that a student with disabilities who possesses a weapon at school would be subject to the discipline procedures in the law; and 2) amended language giving rural schools welcome flexibility in using class size reduction monies. Rural schools that have already reduced class size to18 can use the funds for either professional development or further class-size reduction without forming a consortium, as the current law requires.