NSTA Legislative
Update
November 5, 2007
Will Congress Reauthorize No Child Left Behind This Year?
It appears time is running out for the House of Representatives to introduce and mark up any substantive legislation that would reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act. Since next year is an election year the conventional wisdom is that if a NCLB bill isn’t introduced and finished by the end of this calendar year, then it won’t be introduced during the 2008 election year and Congress will not return to it until as late as 2009.
The situation with NCLB is nicely summed up in an October 30 Los Angeles Times article titled “A Juggling Act on No Child Left Behind”, where reporter Nicole Gaouette writes “As Miller pushes to renew the landmark education law known as No Child Left Behind, he faces so many fights that the fate of the bill is increasingly in doubt. As chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Miller is sparring with Republicans who see his proposed changes as an unacceptable watering down of the law's core standards. Teachers object to his proposal to link pay to performance. Even his fellow Democrats--particularly freshmen who campaigned against it and members of the Congressional Black Caucus--are giving him a hard time, largely for not doing enough to soften the law's most rigid requirements.”
In the Senate, staffers have released a partial draft discussion bill of a number of NCLB Titles including Title I, which includes Math Now and Math Skills, and Title II, Math and Science Partnerships. It is anticipated that Senators Kennedy and Enzi, Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will introduce draft legislation in the Senate later this Fall.
No Child Left Behind and Science Education—Make Your Voice Heard
Meanwhile, NSTA urges NSTA Express readers to make your voice heard on NCLB and science education. Although schools nationwide must assess students in science, science scores do not count (only reading and mathematics assessment scores are counted in the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) measure). As a result many schools, especially at the elementary level, have cut back on the amount of science provided to students.
NSTA believes it is time to Make Science Count. We strongly encourage Congress to make science a required component of the adequate yearly progress measure under Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act. Join us in our campaign to Make Science Count.
FY2008 Appropriations Update: Congressional Champions Seek Higher Funding for MSPs
The appropriations process for FY2008 federal programs continues to chug along.
FY2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations: On Oct. 23 the Senate passed the FY2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill (HR 3043). The bill has moved to conference between House and Senate leaders, and President Bush is expected to veto the bill.
A number of key amendments were added to the massive Senate spending bill. An amendment of interest to the STEM community was introduced by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) that would provide to the U.S. Department of Education in FY08 $6 million for baccalaureate degree programs in STEM tied to teacher certifications and $4 million for master programs for science and math teachers. Both of these programs are part of the America Competes Act, which was signed into law earlier this year.
Two champions of science education, Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), generated a Dear Colleague letter to the appropriations conferees on October 31 asking them to accept the House level of funding ($197 million) for the Math and Science Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education (the Senate bill provides only $182 million for the MSPs). In addition to Ehlers and Holt, Members of Congress who signed on to the letter in support of science and math education funding (and deserve thanks) include Representatives Bart Gordon (D-TN); Ralph Hall (R-TX); Mark Udall (C-CO); Rosco Bartlett (R-MD); Brian Baird (D-WA); James Sensenbrenner (R-WI); Eddie Bernice Johns (D-TX); Ron Paul (R-TX); Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Tom Price (R-GA); David Wu (D-OR); Randy Kuhl (R-NY); James McGovern (D-MA); Michael McCaul (R-TX); Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD); William Jefferson (D-LA); Bob Etheridge (D-NC); Jason Altmire (D-PA); Phil Hare (D-IL); Mike Ross (D-AR); Betty Sutton (D-OH); James Langevin (D-RI); Jerry McNerney (D-CA); and Phil Gingrey (R-GA).
Fy2008 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations: In October the Senate completed work by voting 75 to 19 to approve the FY08 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. This bill funds programs at the National Science Foundation, NASA and other science agencies.
Appropriators from both the House and Senate will be working to develop a final version of this bill, which the President has indicated he would veto because of its overall spending level. The Senate bill provides $850 million for the Education and Human Resources Directorate ($822 million in House bill); $75 million for the Math and Science Partnerships ($66 million in the House) $25 million for the Noyce Scholarship Program ($46 million in the House).
By law, appropriations are supposed to be completed by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, but Congress has not met that target in a very long time. A continuing resolution passed earlier this fall will keep funding for current federal programs available until November 16. At that time since so many of the individual appropriations bills are under a veto threat from the President, many of the individual spending packages, including the most controversial bills like Labor HHHS, may quite likely be rolled into a giant omnibus appropriations package that would fund FY2008 federal programs. A second scenario is passage of another continuing resolution that would keep the federal programs running on FY07 levels and keep lawmakers in town well into December to finish work on these bills. Stay tuned.
Reauthorization of Higher Education Act Anticipated Soon
With action on NCLB uncertain for the moment, it appears that lawmakers are shifting focus toward reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The STEM Education Coalition, which is chaired by NSTA and the American Chemical Society, has developed a letter outlining its priorities for HEA. The letter addresses three areas for HEA: STEM teacher professional development; incentives to encourage students to obtain STEM degrees and pursue STEM related careers; and encouraging diversity in the STEM workforce.