Business and civil rights groups criticize Kline’s NCLB draft
WASHINGTON - A broad coalition of groups has come out in opposition to Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline's rewrite of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Education law.
Groups representing the business community, civil rights groups, disability advocates and teachers unions jointly sent a letter to Kline, who chairs the House Education Committee, calling his draft of the NCLB reauthorization a "rollback" of federal education policy that "undermines the core American value of equal opportunity in education embodied in Brown v. Board of Education."
The letter was first reported by Education Week and you can read it here.
The groups are particularly concerned about a measure in Kline's proposal that would eliminate annual achievement goals for all students. Ed Week notes that a similar coalition of groups expressed the same concerns about the bipartisan Senate reauthorization of NCLB that is also moving forward.
Some of the groups include erstwhile allies of Kline's, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Signers also include the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of People with Disabilities and the Business Coalition for Student Achievement.
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