News

FED ED MEMBERSHIP REACHES 112

We want to welcome new FED ED members. Alsip District 126, Mundelein Elementary District 75, General ASP, the Illinois Math and Science Acadmey, Norridge District 70, Morton Grove District 70, and Evanston District 65 and Lansing District 158 have now joined. FED ED now has 112 district and corporate members and represents over 500,000 school children.

FED ED's growing membership enhances our influence in Washington and continually strengthens the voice of suburban schools.

FED ED GOES TO DC MAY 4-7, 2010

FED ED'S Co-Directors spent May 4-7, 2010 in our nation's capitol meeting with, members of the House of Representatives and Senate, top staff at the Department of Education, and lobbyists form other educational groups.

We continued our regular meetings with our Illinois congressional delegation including Cong. Mark Kirk (10th), Cong. Jan Schakowsky (9th), Cong. Peter Roskam (6th), Cong. Bill Foster (14th), Cong. Debbie Halvorson (11th), Cong. Melissa Bean (8th) and one of the Illinois Representatives on the House Education Committee and long time FED ED ally, Cong. Judy Biggert (13th). We also met with Senator Durbin’s education advisor and then attended a breakfast meeting with Senator Durbin and Senator Burris. We also had another productive meeting at the U.S. Department of Education while meeting with Charlie Rose, Chief General Counsel for the Department. We held meetings with staff of the Chairman of the House Education Committee, Cong. George Miller (CA) and Senator Tom Harkin (IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Both Cong. Miller and Senator Harkin will be providing leadership to the Congress on the reauthorization of ESEA.

Finally, we attended a legislative briefing at the Committee for Education Funding (CEF). FED ED is a member of CEF which includes over 120 of the other “alphabet” educational associations and groups including AASA, CEC (Council for Exceptional Children), the NEA, AFT, NSBA, Harvard University, etc. While discussing our legislative priorities with these individuals and listening to their positions, here are some of the items on which lawmakers and policy makers on both sides of the aisle appear to have reached consensus:

ESEA (NCLB) Reauthorization
As we reported earlier, there is little chance that ESEA will be reauthorized in this session of Congress. While Secretary Duncan continues to call for reauthorization this year, the bigger issues facing congress (immigration reform, the Gulf oil spill, etc.) and the impending election all make it highly unlikely that any action will be taken during this Congress. We asked Senator Durbin if he felt the bill could be reauthorized this session and he said it was unlikely.

Keep Our Educators Working Act
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has introduced the “Keep Our Educators Working Act”. If enacted, the bill will create a $23 billion Education Jobs Fund to help keep teachers, principals, and other school personnel working as states face crippling budget shortfalls. Illinois’ share of the jobs money is estimated to be $978 million. Both Senator Durbin and Senator Burris are among a growing number of cosponsors of the bill.

The message we delivered to our delegation said, in part, “We urge you to support S. 3206 which will create a $23 billion Education Jobs Fund to help keep teachers, principals, librarians and other school personnel on the job as states face crippling budget shortfalls. Illinois alone has laid off 17,000 teachers and layoffs of similar proportions are being seen around the country. The last time we visited with you we told you our members were gravely concerned about the “funding cliff” that was on the horizon for 2012. ARRA monies provided much needed relief but districts are now facing the drastic reductions that we predicted. If these layoffs are allowed to occur the many reforms begun under both Republican and Democratic administrations are in peril. The American people demand quality public education and the drastic layoffs all public schools are facing will make that promise even more difficult to keep.”

No one knows for sure if this bill will pass. On the plus side, the number of co-sponsors is growing and several prominent newspapers (including the New York Times) have published editorials encouraging its passage. Finally, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has promised Senator Harkin that there will be a floor debate on the bill. All of these positive signs are somewhat encouraging and some action may well be taken in the next several weeks.

IDEA offers a long term solution that has much more value to FED ED members than another “one time” fix. However, the current mood in Washington is not currently aligned to long term fixes and the only hope for any significant relief is to push for passage of this “emergency” bill that will bring a much needed infusion of money to Illinois districts.

FED ED SPRING LUNCHEON TO BE HELD MAY 14, 2010

The FED ED Spring Legislative Luncheon will be held on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 12 noon at the Rosewood Restaurant, 9421 W. Higgins Rd., Rosemont, IL. 120 FED ED members are expected to attend.

We are extremely pleased that Jo Anderson, Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, will be the keynote speaker and the recipient of FED ED's Champion of Public Education award for his leadership on behalf of public education. Mary Kusler, AASA’s Assistant Director of Government Relations, will also speak at the luncheon.