2007 and the Difference that we made

With the New Year well under way, I wanted to reflect on the difference that UU advocates made in the lives of children last year. We had some successes that we can all be proud of and observe with an excited anticipation the brighter future that those successes will provide. Successes such as the $100 million dollar increase in afterschool funding that will provide the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program with much needed and long overdue funds, improving valuable afterschool learning and activity time. We can also be proud of the improvements in Headstart; improvements that go beyond dollars and into the much needed area teacher qualification. Thanks to a $6.9 billion increase over FY’07, our very youngest and most compromised will be met by a steadily improving program with strategic deadlines for teacher qualification to be met by 2013. The qualifying threshold for families was also raised expanding eligibility from 100 percent of poverty level to families at 130 percent of the poverty level.
We were also met with struggles that were frustrating. We put a great deal of effort into SCHIP as did advocates from varied organizations around the country. If any good came from the ongoing controversy it would be that SCHIP is now more understood by the general public and it’s need is more greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, it was not reauthorized but was merely extended until March 2009. While the extension will allow states to continue covering the 6 million children who are currently enrolled, it also contained a directive which places a eligibility cap of 250% of the federal poverty level, dramatically changing the original premise of the program. There are efforts underway to repeal the directive in 2008. Stay tuned.
The Farm Bill was finally passed in mid-December by the Senate with provisions that closely mirror those passed by the House in July. There were substantial increases made to the Food Stamp Program, ($3+ billion) and The Emergency Food Assistance Program, ($500+ million). It is vitally important that the Farm Bill get passed in early 2008 in order for the new increases to take effect and aid families in crisis.
Finally, we come to the issue of No Child Left Behind, a piece of legislation that this organization firmly believes is well founded but ill-directed. We have spent a great deal of our efforts this past year trying to raise awareness about the detrimental effects that this legislation has had on compromised populations. It is an effort that is moving like a wave across the nation as more and more teachers, (read about the NEA’s position on NCLB at www.nea.org) parents, and students voice their opinions about this policy and the impact it has had on their lives. It is within this wave that we will focus our attention in 2008 on equity in public education and the inequity that has become a reality in our public schools. There are ongoing efforts to educate the public and lawmakers on the current policy and the effect that it is having on the fundamental right of public education. We need advocates to succeed at this effort. We hope that you will continue your commitment to Promise the Children in 2008 and advocate for change in public education. Peace!

Consider the Cost

Consider the cost...one year fighting the war in Iraq could insure...at the time of this writing...277,895,672 children for one year. http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Cost-of-War Through SCHIP, health care would be provided on a daily basis and would allow these children to develop into healthy, productive adults. We need to consider the cost.

Progress? Last Thursday, 10/25, the House voted 265-142 to approve a modified bill that would reauthorize and expand SCHIP, again falling short of the two-thirds necessary to override a veto. The revised legislation—which is similar to the bill vetoed by President Bush earlier this month—would expand SCHIP to cover 10 million children and increase spending on the program to $35 billion over five years, funded with a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the federal cigarette tax. The bill would limit coverage to children in families with annual incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/25). There were also revisions clarifying policy regarding adults, undocumented workers, and higher income families. Learn the facts at: http://www.chn.org/SCHIPApropsinfo.html

The important point to note here is who voted and how. There was very little change from the previous vote. Forty-three Republicans and 222 Democrats voted in favor of the bill. Only one Democrat, Rep. Jim Marshall (Ga.), opposed the measure. None of the Republicans who voted against the previous bill voted in favor of the revised version and one Republican who voted in favor of the previous bill, Rep. Vernon Ehlers (Mich.), voted against the new version.

Republicans maintain that the revision was drafted too quickly and rushed to the floor leaving very little time for opponents to change their minds. The response from the Bush administration is even more frustrating. The administration said that the revised bill still does not ensure that low-income children will be covered first and does not provide sufficient guarantees that undocumented immigrants will not be able to enroll.

Here is where your work as an advocate is vitally important. You need to make policy makers aware of how you want them to vote. It may be just a phone call but it is how your voice is heard and your voice matters! Please call your Representative at 1-800-965-4701. (for help getting your Reps’ name, go to: http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zip code in the top left corner.) If your representative voted for SCHIP...thank them. They need to hear that you support their decision. If the voted against it, call them and tell them why you support policy to insure more that 10 million American children.

This week SCHIP will most certainly go to the Senate. Please call your Senators at: 1-800-828-0498. (for help getting your Senators’ names, select your state at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm Regardless of how they have voted in the past, call them and tell them how you want them to vote. Consider the cost. We can’t afford to compromise the health of 10 million children. Be their voice!

Our stand on NCLB

With the school year well underway, I thought it would be timely to write about the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) bill and address some of the reasons why Promise the Children continues to work toward it’s reform. I am constantly reminded how this issue really gets people going about “whose side are you on”? We are affirmatively on the side of the children who we feel are being “left behind”. I would like to use this space to further define our position. Here I go…

First, I will start with our mission statement: to empower Unitarian Universalist youth and adults to advocate for a better quality of life for our nation’s children and youth, focusing especially those in low-income families. Yes, we are a UU organization, but our work is for the benefit of all of our nation’s children, not only UU children. Promise works with UU congregations, advocacy groups and other concerned citizens to advocate for quality pre-school and public education, living wages, affordable childcare and housing, and the prevention of hunger and homelessness. Our goal is to help Unitarian Universalists articulate a social justice vision and use political strategies to achieve greater justice in their communities and nation.

A major issue that Promise has embraced in the past year is the NCLB Act. One doesn’t have to be either for or against this legislation. On the contrary, we are in favor of the theory behind the Act. In theory, every child deserves an equal education. And while we applaud the theory, there is more and more substantiated proof that this law is failing those children who need it most. Our mission with regard to NCLB is to address the area of this bill that desperately needs reform. Our goal is for quality and equity in public education for all children.

One could make the argument that NCLB has exposed the inequities in education particularly for urban children, English language learners and those with special needs. This point is well taken and as an educator, I would agree with the need to level the playing field for all children regardless geography, language barriers, or handicaps. This is, after all, public education...for all children. However, while NCLB has managed to expose the inequities, the mandates for dealing with the inequities have proved disastrous for these populations.

Time and again we have heard of children getting lost in the mandated testing cycle. Urban children are particularly at risk for failure (and ultimately dropout) as classes are overcrowded and under served to begin with. Add to that the limited resources needed to assist these challenged students in passing the mandated assessment exams and you are left with a disturbingly high failure statistic. This statistic is read as underperforming, but it actually is the children being undereducated. That is why we support reforming test mandates and to examine and accept other forms of evaluation.

This also holds true for the English language learner who does not speak the English language. How can a child be tested for assessment in a language that he or she is not proficient in? Again, this situation often presents itself in urban settings where resources are not available to adequately tutor these students to be assessed, yet they are held to the same standard as their English speaking peers. They too are being undereducated.

Finally, there is the child with learning difficulties. These problems often go undiagnosed particularly in areas where early intervention is not a priority or an option. The earlier that we get to these children the better but it often does not happen prior to mandated testing. Then we are presented with a child who cannot perform and needs diagnostic testing to determine the level of disability. Unfortunately, this child has now entered the mandated assessment cycle of continuous failure.

All of these scenarios depict children from compromised populations but they exist in every public school in America. And every public school in America must adhere to the mandates dictated by NCLB or risk losing accreditation or worse, closure. Here in Boston, the oldest high school in America, The English High School, is at risk for closure.  Low test scores and a high dropout rate are major contributors to this dilemma. It is reasonable to link these failures to the demands of NCLB. What will this do to this community? Where will these children go to be educated?

These are some of the reasons that Promise the Children so strongly supports and works toward a reexamination and reform of the NCLB Act. We also support reform for the part of teachers who are expected to give high numbers on assessments to prove how well they are educating their students. More often than not, subjects deemed of lesser importance such as the arts and physical education are put to the wayside for drill tactics used to pass the test. While we applaud these educators for their efforts to accommodate a failed system, we recognize that the system has failed and we work to have it reformed.

I know that our readers are from a myriad of professions and I also know that day by day, many of us are realizing the inequities that are evident in this Act. NCLB should be reformed. It needs to be fully funded which will include mandated money for teacher training, accessible tutoring for children with learning difficulties, and revisions in testing mandates and forms of assessments. We need to recognize that a teacher’s goal is to educate our children, not to simply help them pass a test. That is the belief of this UU organization...working for all of our nation’s children.