SJR 30: Urging the United States Congress to amend the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 30 01 Urging the United States Congress to amend the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. 02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 03 WHEREAS the State of Alaska has worked to improve public education by 04 establishing benchmarks for student success; and 05 WHEREAS Alaska strives to provide students with the highest quality of education 06 and has established standards for teacher preparation; and 07 WHEREAS the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates that all schools 08 must make "adequate yearly progress" toward achieving the goals laid out in the Act, and this 09 mandate applies to subgroups, including economically disadvantaged students, students from 10 diverse racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English 11 proficiency; and 12 WHEREAS, if a school identified under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 13 Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, fails to make 14 adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years, the school district must give parents the 15 option of transferring the student to another school that has not been identified as needing 16 improvement; and
01 WHEREAS, if a Title I school fails to make adequate yearly progress for three 02 consecutive years, students must be given the option of obtaining supplemental educational 03 services; and 04 WHEREAS, if a Title I school fails to make adequate yearly progress for four 05 consecutive years, then the school district must replace some school staff, implement a new 06 curriculum, decrease the school's management authority, appoint an outside advisor, extend 07 the school day or year, or restructure the internal organization of the school; and 08 WHEREAS, if a Title I school fails to make adequate yearly progress for five 09 consecutive years, the school district must reopen the school as a charter school, replace all or 10 most of the school's staff, or turn management of the school over to a private company; and 11 WHEREAS, under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, teachers can only teach 12 subjects in which they are certified to be fully qualified; and 13 WHEREAS schools in some parts of Alaska have small staffs, requiring teachers to 14 teach several subject areas; and 15 WHEREAS these and other requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 16 are unsuited to many Alaska schools; and 17 WHEREAS the federal government has failed to provide adequate funding to ensure 18 that school districts in Alaska can meet the federal mandates; and 19 WHEREAS United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige has stated that he will 20 not waive the requirements of the Act for Alaska in spite of the strong entreaties of Alaska's 21 congressional delegation; and 22 WHEREAS the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 constitutes the greatest intrusion 23 into local control over schools in the history of the Republic; 24 BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the United States Congress 25 is urged to make changes to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to more realistically reflect 26 conditions faced by Alaska's schools, including providing for waivers from requirements of 27 the Act for states that have successfully increased student achievement through their own 28 standards and accountability measures; and be it 29 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 30 Congress to appropriate sufficient funds to achieve the goals established by an amended law. 31 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President
01 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States 02 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House 03 of Representatives; the Honorable Rod Paige, United States Secretary of Education; and to the 04 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable 05 Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.