Oppose Weakening Amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015
Recipient: U.S. Senate
View the PDF of this letter here.
Strengthen Accountability, Data Collection, and Resource Equity: Ensure Every Child has the Opportunity to Achieve
Dear Senator:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, we urge you to oppose the following amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015. We believe that the bill must be improved by strengthening accountability for student outcomes, providing additional data on student groups, addressing disparities in resources, and providing a more meaningful federal role; and should not be further weakened.
We also urge you to OPPOSE these amendments, which will further weaken the bill:
Portability of Funds (multiple sponsors)
These amendments would take funds from high-poverty schools and divert them to low-poverty schools, undermining the federal priority of meeting the needs of low-income students.
Isakson Amendment to Title I (#2)
This amendment would lift the cap on students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, who would be administered the alternate assessment, allowing more students to be taken off track to a regular diploma and access to the general classroom.
Paul Amendment to Title VI (#1)
This amendment would subvert longstanding Congressional intent and would allow funds to be spent contrary to the goals of college and career readiness for all students.
We look forward to working with you to ensure that the existing critical protections included in this bill continue to be preserved and that the improvements we seek are incorporated in the final bill. If you have any questions, please contact Liz King, Senior Policy Analyst and Director of Education Policy, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President