2012 CSDGKC Federal Legislative Platform

In the interest of public education, the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City asks the United States Congress to

1. Support changes to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB/ESEA) Act to provide for full funding; to protect the integrity of the current distribution of funding for students in poverty; to create a positive federal educational program by eliminating negative sanctions and standards; and to continue an approach to AYP based on longitudinal data for student achievement.
2. Support changes to the Higher Education Act to encourage students to enter the teaching profession through Federal Loan Forgiveness for beginning teachers.
3. Support making IDEA an entitlement program so that the previously promised 40 percent funding level can be achieved.
4. Support the establishment of a cooperative state driven effort for standards for student performance that include the mastery of basic skills and higher order thinking skills.  Also support accountability of students for these standards with the use of valid, reliable and authentic assessments.
5. Support the re-authorization of NCLB through the legislative process rather than an arbitrary and capricious rule-making process, and support the waiver of all assocaited sanctions until such time that reauthorization occurs.
6. Reframe ESEA to more carefully target the relatively small federal investment in K-12 education to schools serving larger concentrations of low-income and minority children.
7. Promote clear, accurate, easily understood accountability systems that are commensurate with the relative contribution of the federal government to the school district.
8. Oppose legislation that further expands PSRS members into Social Security.
9. Oppose the implementation of a mandatory national exit test for high school students.
10. Oppose any federal legislation that would continue the erosion of local/state control.