House Education Bill: Civil Rights, Disability, Education, and Business Groups Call Miller Amendments “A Significant Step in the Right Direction to Up

For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Westbrook Simpson, 202.466.2061, simpson@civilrights.org
February 28, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, a coalition of 31 groups from the civil rights, disability, business, and education communities released the following statement regarding Ranking Member George Miller’s amendment to Chairman John Kline’s Student Success Act, which would amend and reauthorize Title I and other parts of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA):

“Together, we represent parents, educators, employers, and millions of students from low-income homes, students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, and children of migrant workers.

Read more of the press release at The Leadership Conference HERE.

38 Civil Rights, Disability, Business, and Education Organizations Oppose House ESEA Proposal

Washington, D.C. – Today, 38 organizations – representing a broad cross-section of civil rights, business, disability, and education organizations – publicly released a letter sent yesterday to House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline “firmly opposing” a proposal to rewrite Title I and other parts of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Many of these organizations also joined together in November 2011 in declining to support the Harkin-Enzi bill in the Senate.

The organizations oppose the draft Student Success Act because “it abandons accountability for the achievement and learning gains of subgroups of disadvantaged students who for generations have been harmed by low academic expectations. The draft also eliminates performance targets, removes parameters regarding the use of federal funds to help improve struggling schools, does not address key disparities in opportunity such as access to high-quality college preparatory curricula, restricts the federal government from protecting underprivileged students, and fails to advance the current movement toward college- and career-ready standards.”

See the press release on the Leadership Conference website HERE.