LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
CONSIDERATION OF EDUCATION BILLS STALLED,
REMAIN VEHICLE FOR "STUDENT-PRIVACY" MEASURE | |
As Congress adjourned for a Fourth of July break, partisan gridlock played a big role in blocking consideration of student-privacy and anti-commercialism amendments. But sponsors of the measures, which would harm Kids in the Know members and other groups that work with schools, have vowed to continue to push for their adoption this year.
On May 1, the U.S. Senate began work on legislation to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) had indicated that they planned to offer some version of their "student-privacy" bill legislation as an amendment to ESEA. After voting on a handful of amendments, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) pulled the bill from consideration.
During the debate, Kids in the Know members – working with such allies as the National School Board Association (NSBA) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) – sent strong letters of opposition to key members of Congress. Local school officials opposed this new federal mandate, noting that schools are capable of policing their own activities. They, and groups that serve schools, worked hard to educate lawmakers about the reality of how schools operate and how the Dodd/Shelby approach would do far more harm than any conceivable good.
Garry Myers, Chief Executive Officer of Highlights for Children, for example, wrote that, "the effect of this amendment would be to caste an enormous chilling effect on schools’ use of reading material and other enriching material that requires some collection of information."
Through efforts like these, Kids in the Know and other education-related organizations have educated members of Congress about the severe impact of such wide-ranging legislation.
Status of Education Bills
In the Senate, consideration of ESEA is tangled up in political maneuvering over gun control. Senator Lott ended the Senate debate on it when Democrats vowed to offer gun amendments to the bill. Since then, there have been a handful of meetings to try to resurrect the bill. But, to date, all efforts have failed.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, the outlook is equally uncertain. When the House education committee approved an amendment that is similar to the Dodd-Shelby bills in April, the measure was expected to receive expedited consideration by the full House. But it too has been stalled. It is believed that the House will not take action on the bill until the Senate passes its version.
Kids in the Know and its allies worked throughout May and June to fight these negative measures. Meanwhile, another legislative vehicle that was a potential target for the amendments, the actual spending bill that funds education programs, moved through the House and Senate.
The risk posed by these bills appears to be over, because both bodies passed versions without "student-privacy" provisions.
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