The most important issue for Americans is ensuring that their children have access to a high quality education. Parents are concerned about the quality of the education their children are receiving in local school districts across the country. When they look at our public schools, America’s parents want:

• The performance of public schools to be improved
• Highly-qualified teachers in every classroom
• Safer schools
• The needs of special-needs children to be met
• After-school opportunities to be provided

And yet, unfortunately, Washington Republicans aren’t listening.

Washington Republicans Aren’t Listening to America’s Parents - Breaking the Promises Made by No Child Left Behind

When the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in January 2002, the promise was made to combine tough accountability standards with enough money to get the job done. Everyone at the time agreed that it would be wasteful to spend more money on schools without reform, but that it would be unfair to enact reforms without adequate funding. Substantial funding coupled with clear demands for better results from every student made this law historic.

But the promise has been broken … and broken … and broken. Over the last five years, Congress and the Administration have shortchanged our schools over $56.7 billion compared to what was promised in the law. States, school districts, and schools have been struggling to comply with the law, but the promised federal resources have not been provided.

Now the GOP has pushed through a Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill for FY 2007 that falls another $16.4 billion short of what was promised by No Child Left Behind. The areas covered by No Child Left Behind include such areas as raising student achievement, teacher training, safe and drug-free schools, and after-school learning opportunities. On issue after issue, the GOP bill fails to live up to the promises made by No Child Left Behind.

Democrats Want Congress to Keep Its K-12 Promises And Are Also Putting Forward Additional Proposals to Improve K-12 Education

In contrast to Washington Republicans, Democrats are fighting to keep the promises that Congress made to children and parents by investing in education reform. In addition, Democrats are putting forward a number of key education proposals that address the concerns of America’s parents:

H.R. 2835, the TEACH Act - Teacher quality is a top priority to America’s parents. This is a top priority for House Democrats as well, and in June House Democrats introduced H.R. 2835, the Teacher Excellence for All Children (TEACH) Act, which is designed to attract and retain highly qualified teachers for all of America’s public schools. This legislation has been endorsed by 16 leading education organizations. Unfortunately, Washington Republicans are blocking this important legislation and even denying it any hearings.

The TEACH Act is designed to meet four critical goals:

• Increase the supply of outstanding teachers;
• Ensure all children have teachers with expertise in the subjects they teach;
• Identify and reward the best teachers; and
• Keep the best teachers and principals in our schools.

The TEACH Act has numerous provisions to achieve these goals, including expanding professional development programs for teachers, increasing funding for programs with a proven track record in helping improve the performance of beginning teachers, providing tuition assistance to talented undergraduates committed to a career in education, providing incentives for exemplary teachers to teach in “high-need” schools, and developing career ladders for teachers.

H.R. 363, Keep Our Promise to America’s Children and Teachers Act - While asking our teachers, our principals and our students to do more, Washington Republicans and the Bush Administration have been providing far less than they promised: over $40 billion less than promised for the No Child Left Behind alone. Under recent Republican budget requests, No Child Left Behind will never achieve full funding.

That is why Democrats have introduced H.R. 363, Keep Our Promise to America’s Children and Teachers Act, or PACT Act. This legislation makes clear that Democrats stand for keeping our commitment to fully fund No Child Left Behind as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. As Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the bill’s chief sponsor, has pointed out, “It’s time to keep our promises to the children of America. There’s been lots of talk about giving schoolchildren the resources they need to succeed; now it is time for reality to match the rhetoric.”