By Fritz Edelstein
January 31, 2005

Education Standing Committee Chair, Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell opened the meeting with a brief statement about the issues and problems confronting her as the mayor with the legal responsibility for the Cleveland Public Schools. She stated that there have been significant improvements such as a rise in the graduation rate from 28 percent to 50 percent since she took office, but class size remains at 40 to 50 students per class. Due to financial problems further complicated this year when a proposed increase in the school tax levy failed, the school system has had to release some 1,400 teachers.

This opening set the tone for the Committee meeting prior to the presentation by Ken Meyer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education. Meyer introduced his remarks with a brief history of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) first passed by Congress in 1965. He acknowledged that many of the requirements and components included in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed in 2001 were based on components included in the Improving America's Schools Act (reauthorization of ESEA) in 1994 during the Clinton Administration. Since passage of ESEA in 1965 some $135 billion in education funds has been sent to the states from the federal government to close the achievement gap.

The fundamental principle of NCLB as stated by President Bush is that education legislation requires results for the dollars invested. The bill asks for more accountability because of the poor showing by American students on several international assessments especially in math and science as compared to other nations.

The focus of the President's education agenda in his second term will be on improving results in high schools. This includes expanding testing first required in NCLB for grades K-8 to be extended to the high school years in reading and math. Testing is being used as a tool to understand where students have problems and then go about creating a plan to address those skill problems. Included in the President's high school proposal that will be featured in his FY 2006 proposed budget are increased funding for Striving Readers, secondary students program for struggling readers; expansion of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses; incentive fund that would allow school districts to reward teachers based on increase student achievement or other criteria chosen by the district; and a state scholars program to encourage students to take more rigorous courses.

Campbell, along with Manchester Mayor Robert Baines, Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy, and Rochester Mayor William Johnson, raised concerns during the open discussion about the under funding of both NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Mayors perceived these to pieces of legislation as under funded mandates and this feeling was echoed by Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley at one of the meeting's plenary sessions. St. Petersburg Mayor Richard M. Baker talked about the importance of the statute in getting necessary changes made in the schools that focused on student improvement during the committee meeting. All the mayors attending the committee meeting agreed that NCLB was an important statute in principle, but there were flaws in the law which need to be corrected including the adequate yearly progress provision. Much of that concern points to the schools identified as "in need of improvement" in a district as -failing- schools by both the press and federal officials. Meyer admitted this has been a problem and that the rhetoric needs to change and not convey that a school has failed since the law does not label those schools as such.

need of improvement" in a district as -failing- schools by both the press and federal officials. Meyer admitted this has been a problem and that the rhetoric needs to change and not convey that a school has failed since the law does not label those schools as such.

The meeting concluded with the announcement of the grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Conference to hold a Mayors' National Education Summit for three successive years beginning in the fall 2005, and conduct research that will assist mayors in their efforts to be leaders in education in their cities. More information on this year's Summit will be forthcoming in the next few months.