Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington state has introduced the Pass Act. Senators Durbin, Kennedy and Clinton are all co-sponsors. The PASS act is designed to help teenagers graduate from high school, go on to secondary education, and enter the working world with the skills they need to succeed. The PASS Act will reach out to vulnerable students during high school by providing needed training, guidance and resources.
Bush and the Republicans have handed the schools their NCLB tests and slammed the funding door shut behind them. Bush is all about measuring how the students are doing but does not seem to give a damn about the actually process that may need to take place to improve those test scores. Nor does he care about the extreme focus of the tests that may keep learning other subjects from occuring. The madman needs to be stoppped. We must invest in our children. They are our future.
Here is some interesting finding from the PASS bill. Emphasis is mine.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) While the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425), provides a strong framework for helping children in the early grades, our Nation still needs a comprehensive strategy to address the literacy problems and learning gaps of students in middle school and secondary school.
(2) Approximately 60 percent of students in the poorest communities fail to graduate from secondary school on time, in large part because of severe reading deficits that contribute to academic failure.
(3) Forty percent of students attending high minority enrollment secondary schools enroll in remedial reading coursework when entering higher education, in an effort to gain the skills their secondary education failed to provide.
(4) While 33 percent of all low-income students are enrolled in secondary schools, only 15 percent of the funding targeted to disadvantaged students goes to secondary schools.
(5) Data from the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress show that 32 percent of boys and 19 percent of girls in eighth grade cannot read at a basic level. These numbers do not change significantly in the secondary school years and are even more dramatic when students are identified by minority status.
(6) The 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing scores indicate that while the percentage of fourth and eighth graders writing at or above a basic level increased between 1998 and 2002, the percentage of 12th graders writing at or above a basic level decreased. These numbers show that our concentrated efforts for elementary school students have improved their writing skills, but by neglecting the needs of secondary school students, we are squandering these gains.
(7) The United States cannot maintain its position as the world's strongest economy if we continue to ignore the literacy needs of adolescents in middle school and secondary school.
(8) The achievement gap between White and Asian students and Black and Hispanic students remains wide in the area of mathematics.
(9) The 2003 National Assessment of Education Progress shows that the achievement gap between the mathematics scores of eighth grade Black and Hispanic students and White students is the same in 2003 as in 1990.
(10) The 2003 National Assessment of Education Progress shows that eighth grade students eligible for a free or reduced-price school lunch did not meet the basic mathematics score, unlike non-eligible students.
(11) According to the latest results from international assessments, 15-year-olds from the United States performed below the international average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving, placing 27th out of 39 countries.
(12) Only 1/3 of the United States workforce has any post-secondary education, yet 60 percent of new jobs in the 21st century will require post-secondary education.
thomas.gov
We are the richest country in the world but we choose not to invest in our kids. This is what I see from these statistics. Pure and simple.
I also see that poor school districts struggle. Poor students are not being offered the same education that more wealthy students are.
I am not talking about private schools. I am talking about wealthy school districts that raise property taxes to fund education. Public schools were created to be the great economic equalizer in this country. We cannot have the funding so dependent on property taxes. This funding system helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The PASS act allows for appropriations.
(B) PRIORITY- The Secretary shall give priority in awarding grants under this paragraph to eligible local educational agencies that--
(i) are among the local educational agencies in the State with the lowest graduation rates, as described in section 1111(b)(2)(C)(vi) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)(C)(vi)); and
(ii) have the highest number or percentage of students who are counted under section 1124(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6333(c)).
This bill will give more of the funding to districts with the lowest graduation rates. This sounds like some people in Congress are thinking. I have to hand it to the Democratic leaders. They are fighting for us. We just aren't winning them enough seats in Congress so they can get the job done.
Please write to you Senators in support of this bill. It is bill S.921.