After last Monday’s success, The CTA is continuing its effort to make sure that the Miller NCLB draft is slowed down and/or modified substantially with an event in Northern California today (see details below). As before, I’m not sure just how coordinated this is with the national -- as happened with the Katrina vouchers, I’m told. Or perhaps they’re playing good cop, bad cop. On strategy, I’ve noted before that Miller may have overplayed his hand by including TEACH. But it occurs to me also that the unions may have done the same by pushing to expand local assessments and multiple measures, which Miller included in his bill. There’s some priority-setting here that I’m not sure makes sense. Bay Area Teachers to Make ‘Special Delivery’
to Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco Thursday
to Protest Reauthorization Proposal for Federal
‘No Child Left Behind Act’
News Conference Includes Lawmakers, Labor Leaders and Giant
CTA Postcard Signed by 1,000 Educators from Across California
SAN FRANCISCO – Bay Area teachers, lawmakers and San Francisco labor leaders will join California Teachers Association Vice President Dean E. Vogel Thursday in presenting a giant CTA postcard signed by 1,000 public school educators to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to protest her support of unfair reauthorization proposals in the federal “No Child Left Behind Act.” They will also deliver a letter from state lawmakers who also oppose the harmful reauthorization language.
The garage door-sized postcard will form the backdrop of a news conference in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco, where Pelosi’s office is located, as part of the 340,000-member CTA’s new campaign urging Congress to vote no on proposed NCLB reauthorization changes. As one of the signers of the letter of opposition by State Senator Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, Senator Leland Yee, Ph.D., D-San Francisco/San Mateo, will outline why many Democrats in the state Legislature signed on to warn Pelosi about the new changes hurting students, teachers and schools by making a bad law worse.
Pelosi supports unfair changes in the reauthorization proposed by U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, that are the subject of fast-tracked hearings now in Congress. The changes would place even more undue emphasis on test scores, create new sanctions for struggling schools, make it harder to attract and retain teachers, undermine local control, and erode employee rights. Complete information about CTA’s NCLB campaign is available at www.cta.org/issues/esea/.
· WHAT: CTA Vice President Dean E. Vogel, Bay Area teachers, lawmakers and labor leaders to hold news conference protesting Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s support of proposed reauthorization changes in the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” that hurt students, educators and schools.
· WHEN: 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20.
· WHERE: In front of Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, 94102.
· VISUALS: Giant postcard to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed by 1,000 California teachers.
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The 340,000-member California Teachers Association is affiliated with the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.