Earlier this afternoon the Chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (collectively known as the Tri-Caucus) and their respective education task forces sent this letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees responsible for K-12 education legislation expressing, “significant concerns for the potentially grave consequences,” of the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act, introduced by Representative John Kline on February 9th.
We share their major concerns:
• Lack of bipartisan authorship and support for the two bills;
• Significantly weakened standards and accountability for schools;
• Failure to provide adequate resources to the highest need children.
We applaud the Tri-Caucus members and their staff for standing firm against the harmful provisions in these bills. If passed, the legislation would roll back the progress our schools have made under NCLB over the last decade. And even worse, it would inhibit the gains we hope to see in the coming years. Our children and teachers deserve better.