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The Education Report Legislative Update June 2, 2006 The Education Report The Education Report is a weekly report of public policy issues in American Education. This week's report for June 2nd may be read or downloaded at http://www.socialstudies.org/legislative/. The report is prepared by Washington Partners, LLC, a public and government relations consulting firm dedicated to empowering its clients in public policy and communications. The report is copyrighted by Washington Partners, LLC. Redistribution of the report or its content outside of NCSS without the express prior permission of Washington Partners, LLC is prohibited. Highlights of Interest to NCSS members include: Budget and Appropriations Update -- Capitol Hill was in full recess mode this week, having left town last Friday after several weeks of intense partisan debate over spending plans and immigration reform. The fighting was not just between parties. Outrage over an FBI raid on the office of a congressman under a bribery investigation caused tension between the Congress and the White House and contributed to the poisonous environment. A four-hour lock down in the House office buildings, imposed because of loud, unidentified noises in an underground parking garage, slowed the departure of Members and aides anxious to get away for the long weekend. In other words, everyone needed a week-long "cooling off" period. In spite of the recess, progress was being made on the appropriations front, and the results were disappointing to education advocates. The victory that was celebrated when Senators Specter (R-PA) and Harkin (D-IA) successfully amended the budget resolution to add $7 billion for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill appears to be slipping away. Absent a budget resolution conference report, the Senate will be forced to adopt a deeming provision, the purpose of which is to divide up the agreed-upon pool of spending among subcommittees. As of this writing, that pool has been cut by $10 billion since the bill was debated and adopted and funding for LHHS and ED has been reduced from an additional $7.2 billion to something slightly above $4.1 billion. This will leave Senate appropriators in a position similar to that of their House colleagues. The allocation for LHHS and ED agreed upon a few weeks ago in the House gave Subcommittee Chairman Regula (R-OH) just $4.1 billion more than the President had requested for programs in his jurisdiction-that is almost $3 billion less than is necessary to match last year's spending levels. Mr. Regula's Subcommittee will meet on June 7th to debate his funding plan for LHHS and ED. The full Appropriations Committee has scheduled a June 13th mark-up for the bill, followed by floor action the following week. A Senate appropriations schedule has not been announced and though word is out on the deeming provision there is still time to put pressure on the Senate leadership regarding funding for domestic programs. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has written and is circulating a letter to her colleagues urging them to press Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) and Appropriations Committee Chair Cochran (R-MS) to honor the Specter/Harkin amendment and increase funding for the LHHS and ED Subcommittee. The recess period ends next week. Let's hope everyone did in fact have time to cool-off. NCES Unveils Condition of Education 2006 -- On June 6, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) unveiled its annual "Condition of Education" report for 2006. The Congressionally mandated report examines several areas of the education landscape including: participation; outcomes; educational progress; and other statistics related to elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. The report includes data from several other reports including Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The report avoids using subjective terms and simply reports on statistics. For more information on the report, visit: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/ In Brief Forum for Youth Investment Discusses Efforts to Ensure College Readiness -- On May 30, the Forum for Youth Investment hosted an audioconference to discuss efforts within the education and youth development community to ensure that young people are prepared for college, work and to succeed by the age of 21. "Ready by 21" is an effort by the Forum to encourage localities to pool resources to this end. More information is available on the Forum's web site at http://www.forumfyi.org/Files/ReadyforCollege.pdf Report Finds Gaps Remain Between States' Progress, Goals of NCLB -- A recently released Department of Education (ED) study of Title I accountability and school improvement efforts from 2001-2004, found that states and localities are making progress but gaps still remained between their status and the goals of NCLB. The Evaluation of Title I Accountability Systems and School Improvement Efforts (TASSIE) report was commissioned by ED and is based on surveys of all states, a nationally representative sample of districts, and a sample of schools. ,a href="http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/disadv/tassie3/index.html">For more information New Publications Education Insights, Public Agenda (2006). "Reality Check 2006, Issue No. 2: How Black and Hispanic Families Rate Their Schools." http://www.publicagenda.org/research/pdfs/rc0602.pdf In the News The Washington Post (5/31/06). "Schools, Pressed to Achieve, Put the Squeeze on Recess." The New York Times (5/30/06). "Can't Complete High School? Go Right to College." 277d762aebc&ei=5070 < a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1196969,00.html">Time (6/01/06). "No Child Left Behind: Giving the States a Break."
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