NEA applauds waivers for hurricane-affected schools
NEA President Reg Weaver applauded the announcement Friday (September 30, 2005) by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings that some schools and districts affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita would receive automatic waivers of sanctions under federal testing mandates, while others would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
“We are pleased that the secretary is providing flexibility to schools and students that have been devastated by the recent hurricanes,” Weaver said.
Spellings’ announcement that some schools and districts would automatically be protected against sanctions under the "adequate yearly progress" provisions of the so-called "No Child Left Behind" law came in testimony before the Education and Workforce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“It would be nearly impossible, and certainly unfair, to hold students who no longer have schools or for whom the school year will be truncated by half to testing measurements based on a full year of study,” Weaver said. “We urge the secretary to consider extending the automatic waivers against further sanctions to all schools affected by the hurricanes, including those taking in displaced students.”
Although the 2.7-million-member NEA approved of the reconsideration by the Bush administration, the NEA president made it clear that this was only the first of several policy changes that needed to be taken in response to Katrina.
Among those additional concerns are federal mandates for meeting “highly qualified” status by teachers and paraprofessionals.
“When people don’t have homes, or power, or phone service, when colleges and universities have been closed, and requirements differ from state to state, it’s difficult to see how educators can be expected to meet continuing education and professional development requirements by the end of this school year,” Weaver said. “Let’s remember, in many cases educators are displaced as well.”
Weaver also expressed the association’s concerns about the Bush administration’s attempts to use the Katrina crisis to promote private school vouchers. Even now, the administration is trying to divert $488 million in hurricane relief dollars away from public schools directly to private schools.
“If their goal is to help children attending private schools,” Weaver said, “federal laws already exist that can allow that to happen for the limited purpose of meeting this current crisis. Setting up a new voucher program for private schools under the guise of Katrina recovery is unnecessary and very suspect.” Weaver went on to say, “This amounts to nothing more than the administration exploiting this crisis in an attempt to push through an unpopular and divisive social policy debate.”
Posted September 30, 2005