SR33: Resolution Text

LRB-4454/1

PJD:wlj:jf

2003 - 2004 LEGISLATURE

2003 Senate RESOLUTION 33

March 10, 2004 - Introduced by Senators Lassa, Erpenbach, Robson, Moore and Coggs. Referred to Committee on Education, Ethics and Elections.

SR33,1,3 Relating to: strongly urging the state not to appropriate any state funds for implementing the No Child Left Behind Act which would not otherwise have been expended for public education under existing state education laws.

SR33,1,7 Whereas, in fiscal year 2003, under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), Wisconsin received approximately $277 million and used the funds to run many programs that accrued great benefits to low income children; and

SR33,1,10 Whereas, in January 2002, the federal government enacted a comprehensive revision to ESEA known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which expanded federal requirements for primary and secondary school education; and

SR33,1,15 Whereas, the act increases Wisconsin's system of setting standards and testing students for achievement of the standards to once in each of grades 3 to 8 in language arts and mathematics and to once in each of 3 grades in science causing a major disruption of administrative and curriculum planning as well as a major expense to Wisconsin's education system; and

SR33,2,4 Whereas, the act imposes serious consequences, which will have fiscal implications to both the state and local school districts, in which the students in any grade or subgroup such as low income students or students with disabilities within a grade do not meet the standards; and

SR33,2,8 Whereas, NCLB is a "one size fits all" educational policy that will be detrimental to Wisconsin's rural and urban schools where it is already difficult to recruit and retain teachers and where wild fluctuations in testing results can occur due to small class sizes; and

SR33,2,14 Whereas, while the expanded provisions of NCLB direct many meritorious improvements in the public education system, they have the potential to interfere severely with state and local legislative and education administration prerogatives and to cost the state of Wisconsin considerably more to implement than the amount of federal grants it receives, thereby placing a major burden on the state's strained financial resources; and

SR33,2,17 Whereas, Public Law 104-4 of 1995 was intended to curb the practice of imposing unfunded federal mandates on states and local government; now, therefore, be it

SR33,2,21 Resolved by the senate, That the senate strongly urges the state not to appropriate any state funds for implementing NCLB which would not otherwise have been expended for public education under existing state education laws; and, be it further

SR33,3,2 Resolved by the senate, That the senate urges the department of public instruction, before adopting any new rules for the purpose of complying with NCLB, to submit a written proposal describing the rule and the potential costs to local school districts of implementing the rule to the senate committee on education; and, be it further

SR33,3,6 Resolved by the senate, That the senate urges the superintendent of public instruction to submit to the senate committee on education a statement of expenditures by the state and local school districts made to comply with NCLB; and, be it further

SR33,3,10 Resolved, That the senate chief clerk shall send a copy of this resolution to the president of the United States, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, the members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster.

SR33,3,11 (End)