We've headed off a worse reauthorization of NCLB, for the time being...
by Elizabeth Ahlgren, NEA Director District 10, Morse High

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! You work miracles every day but
you really went above and beyond if you called, wrote, faxed or
e-mailed your member of Congress to slow down the reauthorization of
NCLB. It appears that the Miller-Pelosi draft is stalled in committee and we need to embrace the organizing power of CTA and it's locals in making this happen.

The Democrats in Congress want more reform than the Miller-
Pelosi draft allowed and the Republicans in Congress were looking for
additional reforms too, but not any erosion of the "standards" as
written in the previous version. ESEA will need to be reauthorized
sometime in the next two years, so we are not out of the woods just
yet. I'm not a betting person but if I were, I would say we need to
get our representatives informed about what makes sense for our
students. If we continue to speak up, our message can become their
message; and we will see a future draft that makes sense for students.

The bad news is that California has a damaged relationship with
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman George Miller. They have been our
friends in Congress for a long time, and we need to work to restore
our working relationship. The good news is that the members of the
House education and labor committee are speaking up and not just
giving a nod to Chairman Miller's misguided draft.

The exciting news is that the social security offset legislation is now off the back burner. A committee hearing on the offset legislation is expected later this winter in the House but we just got word that the Senate Finance Com-
mittee, chaired by John Kerry, is conducting a hearing on November 6. Five Californians were slated to be there including: CTA President David Sanchez, NEA Director, Patty Taylor, and three more who hadn't been named at the time I sat to write this article. If this issue is important to you, ask your SDEA rep about the NEA report from the SDEA rep council meeting. I will have shared the latest news. You can also check out the NEA website: www.nea.org and check out the issues in education link. Major
updates are posted on the main page; and more detail is posted to the
members only area and to the issues section. It's a complicated
issue that affects members in California and 15 other states. Read
up on it: especially if you thought you would be getting social
security.

In the meantime, take some time for yourself and have a wonderful
Thanksgiving holiday.