Leaving No Child Behind

In America’s early days, our founding fathers wanted to do something very different from what they had experienced in Europe. They wanted every child in America to have a quality public education. The standard they set forth more than 200 years ago has been the foundation of our democracy and our economic success. Unfortunately, in the past few years we have not kept pace with the demand for quality in public education. Creativity and accountability in our public schools became increasingly rare. But last year Congress passed legislation to turn the tide. In the spirit of ensuring each child in America gets an equal opportunity to succeed, it was christened the No Child Left Behind Act. This January we celebrated the one-year anniversary of these landmark education reforms to improve our nation’s public school system. No Child Left Behind set high expectations for our children and our schools. And Congress put its money where its mouth is. Along with the objectives of empowering parents and educators, the legislation provided more federal dollars with fewer bureaucratic strings for our nation’s schools. Last fall when America’s children went back to school, so too did millions of dollars in new resources and the mandate that our nation’s schools improve. Empowering Parents We know that parents are one of the keys to a successful education. According to research from the National Parent Teacher Association, parental involvement results in higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates; increased motivation and higher self-esteem; decreased use of drugs and alcohol; and greater enrollment rates in post-secondary education. The benefits are limitless. But what happens if parents are unhappy with the performance of their child’s school? Too often, parents have been left with little recourse to fix the problem or seek alternatives within the public system. But not any longer. One of the key components of No Child Left Behind was a series of reforms aimed at empowering parents. An element I introduced was the parents’ report card, which provides parents regular updates on the performance of their child’s school. Additionally, the law provides immediate new options for parents of students in chronically underachieving and dangerous public schools. The Department of Education has also dedicated part of its website to providing resources for parents. By logging on to www.nclb.gov/parents, Texans can download tools to more actively participate in their child’s education. Empowering Educators No Child Left Behind provides help for all of our nation’s schools, but gives additional resources to underachieving schools – the ones that need it most. It also implements a variety of reforms, from giving teachers tax relief for out-of-pocket classroom expenses, to shielding teachers, principals and school board members from frivolous lawsuits. And not only does the law require testing for our children to ensure they are learning, it requires accountability for producing results. Increasing Federal Funding No Child Left Behind triples funding for reading programs proven to work and increases funding for Title I, the largest education program for disadvantaged children, by $1.5 billion. Most importantly, the legislation acknowledges that states and local school districts – not the federal government – know how to most effectively allocate their resources. It gives all 50 states and every local school district new freedom and flexibility in the use of federal education dollars, so schools can spend the money on the programs and initiatives that work best for their students. Texas schools experienced a dramatic boost to their bottom line as a result of No Child Left Behind. Federal funds for major state K-12 education programs increased by 23 percent, from $1.8 billion in 2001, to $2.2 billion in 2002. In the past year, educators across the nation and throughout Texas have embraced these reforms and the spirit of a new era of accountability in public education. As we move forward and continue to improve our public school system, we will do what our founders intended: level the playing field for each child in this great nation.