Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

"If we're going to compete on a global level, and get our county's economy back on the track of long-term, stable growth, education must be a top priority for our nation. I am dedicated to improving educational opportunities for every American at every level, from early childhood education through post-secondary education.

I have been a leader in helping to increase federal support for public schools so that all of our schoolchildren receive the attention they need and so that we can close the achievement gap that continues to exist in far too many Wisconsin schools. I've fought for smaller class sizes and adequate funding for programs ranging from Title I which serves disadvantaged students to IDEA grants that serve students with disabilities, from after-school and school counseling programs for students to professional development programs for teachers.

Teachers and local school districts should maintain control over decisions that affect our children's day-to-day classroom experiences. For this reason, I have opposed efforts by the federal government to establish a one-size-fits-all approach in federal education policy - bills like No Child Left Behind (NCLB). NCLB imposed a high stakes testing system on our schools that has caused some schools to narrow curriculum and focus heavily on test prep strategies to the exclusion of providing students with a well-rounded curriculum. While I support fair and responsible accountability for Wisconsin's schools, we should leave decisions about the means and use of assessment up to the states and local school districts that bear the responsibility for -- and most of the cost of -- educating our children. Every state and every school district is different. A uniform federal testing policy, like that enacted as part of NCLB, is not the best approach for students.

Access to higher education provides a key gateway to success in this country. Without a college degree, or other post-secondary education, it is a lot harder to find a successful path through today's labor market - and without loans and grants from the federal government, many individuals simply can't consider post-secondary education. I am proud to have successfully expanded the size and availability of Pell grants and will continue this work so that every American can realize the dream of a college education."

- Senator Russ Feingold

Students Deserve Better Than a "One-Size-Fits-All' Approach to Education - Russ strongly supports maintaining local control over decisions that affect our children's day-to-day classroom experiences, and is committed to ensuring that the federal dollars spent on education meet the needs of local school districts. He was one of ten senators to vote against the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 because it did not bring us closer to these goals. He specifically opposed the mandatory testing provisions of the act and has worked on numerous efforts since to reform the law, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Wisconsin parents, teachers, and school administrators alike overwhelmingly believe ESEA/NCLB needs to be fixed and the feedback Russ has received from various Wisconsinites has informed his efforts to improve the law.

As part of that effort, Russ is the lead sponsor of the Improving Student Testing Act and the Flexibility and Innovation in Education Act-- fully offset legislation aimed at reforming NCLB by improving the quality of education assessments used in schools across Wisconsin and around the country - and putting the power to push innovative reforms in the hands of individual states and local school districts. Together, these bills would:

* Reform NCLB's reliance on low quality multiple choice tests by providing fully offset competitive grant funds to states to develop higher quality measurements of student performance such as computer-adaptive tests, performance-based tests like science experiments and written essays, and tests that require students to demonstrate higher order thinking skills that are so necessary for success in the 21st century.

* Reform the federal testing mandate altogether so that states can use multiple measures of student achievement when holding schools accountable rather than just reading and math standardized tests that are now the primary basis for school accountability.

* Provide the flexibility to states and local districts to design growth models to measure student and school progress so that schools receive credit for academic growth in all students, not just credit for achieving a basic cut score on a standardized tests. Growth models will help to ensure students are more than a test score and will provide more individualized attention to all students since schools will be responsible for showing that each student, regardless of their current achievement level, has made academic growth during the school year.

* Improve the peer review process by which state accountability plans are approved at the Department of Education to help ensure that states like Wisconsin are able to interact with peer review teams, and to encourage a more consistent decision-making process from state to state during the federal peer review time period.

* Require states to separate out or disaggregate data on different categories of graduation rates of students with disabilities, English language learners, low-income students, and minority students to provide more information to parents and teachers about every state's progress toward closing the graduation gap that exists in our nation's schools.

* Improve systems that help ensure the privacy of students' personal information contained in various states' education data systems.

** Russ's Improving Student Testing Act has been endorsed by: the Wisconsin Department of Education; the Wisconsin Association of School Boards; the Wisconsin Education Association Council; the Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance; the Wisconsin Council for Administrators of Special Services; the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials; the Wisconsin Association of School Social Workers; the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators; the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators; the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association; the National PTA; the National Council of Teachers of English; the National Association of Secondary School Principals; the National Association of Elementary School Principals; the National Education Association; the American Association of School Administrators; and the Social School Work Association of America.

Giving Experts a Seat at the Table -- Too often legislation is passed in Washington, D.C., with absolutely zero input from the people who are affected most by those new laws. When it comes to massive bills like NCLB, it's even more important to see what may be working -- and what may not work at all.

To that end, Russ has introduced the Teachers at the Table Act. Problems and concerns associated with NCLB have consistently been a top issue brought up at Russ's Listening Sessions across the state since the bill became law. His fully offset bill would create a Volunteer Teacher Advisory Committee to advise Congress and the Department of Education on the impact of NCLB on students, their families, and the classroom learning environment.

The Volunteer Teacher Advisory Committee created in the Teachers at the Table Act would be composed of past and present Teachers of the Year who have applied to serve on the Committee. The Committee will represent diverse and multiple geographic regions, specialty areas, and grade levels, and submit annual reports to Congress and the Secretary of Education on the impact of NCLB on students and their families.

Children Need the Basics to Learn -- Russ and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) are lead sponsors of a bipartisan effort to improve school breakfast programs so that it's easier for children to learn throughout the school day. The Student Breakfast and Education Improvement Act provides schools the opportunity to apply for competitive grants when at least 65% of the school's students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. The legislation also encourages the implementation of breakfast meal programs and promotes increased nutritional education for students. A modified version of this legislation was recently included in the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act that passed the U.S. Senate.

Improving Our Nation's High Schools -- High school graduation is a prerequisite to success in life. Yet far too many of our nation's students are not graduating high school. Data shows that nationwide only 70% of our nation's high school students graduate and for minority students that percentage is even lower. In addition, Russ has heard growing concern from business leaders and higher education officials in Wisconsin that the some of the students who are graduating high school are not well prepared for either success in post-secondary education or the workforce.

To address these concerns, Russ has introduced the Connecting Education and Emerging Professions Act, legislation that would seek to improve collaboration between our nation's high schools and area businesses, workforce groups, and higher education. This legislation, which is fully offset so as not to increase the deficit, would provide competitive grants to high schools to set up partnerships with institutions of higher education, area businesses, workforce groups, and other stakeholders. These partnerships would come together to discuss the skills students need to be successful in emerging industries in Wisconsin and then examine whether high schools are adequately teaching students those skills. The partnerships can then use these federal grant funds to improve course offerings at area high schools including setting up apprenticeships and internships for students and to provide more professional development to educators so they can better collaborate with area business leaders and professors. These partnerships would be designed to show students why high school is relevant to their futures and would be targeted to high schools with lower graduation rates so that they could work to improve those graduation rates.

Opening the Doors of Higher Education -- Russ has been a consistent leader in efforts to increase the availability of a higher education to all students, no matter their individual circumstances.

Pell Grants are a cornerstone of student aid packages across Wisconsin and around the country and are the largest source of federal need-based grant aid. Since his work with Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) in 2001, his annual efforts to boost funding for the Pell Grant program, and through his support for the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Russ has successfully helped increase the individual maximum Pell Grant award from $3,750 for the 2001 award year to $5,550 for the 2010 award year. These valuable grants help millions of students afford a college education and Russ will continue his work to increase the size of individual grants, as well as the total funds available for the program.

Throughout the years, Russ has also secured funding for important programs such as TRIO, which provides competitive grant funds to help first generation college students and disadvantaged students succeed in college. He also recently supported the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, legislation that reformed the federal student loan program to end billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies to private student loan companies. Instead of the government paying private companies to issue federal student loans, the federal government now issues these federal student loans directly to students at a substantial savings to the American taxpayer. Some of the savings from this legislation was used to increase Pell Grant funding and funding for our nation's community colleges and some of the savings went to reduce our nation's deficit. Russ has also worked on a bipartisan basis to help stop scholarship fraud and protect college students by making more information on such fraudulent schemes -- as well as information on legitimate scholarship offers -- more readily available.

Recognition of Feingold's Record on Education - Senator Feingold was named "2001 Legislator of the Year" by the United States Students Association (USSA) for his work to increase Pell Grants to keep up with rising student costs, helping make higher education affordable. He's also consistently earned an "A' in the National Education Association's yearly scorecard of votes taken by members of Congress. Senator Feingold was given an award by the HEP-CAMP Association in 2006 for his efforts to improve education opportunities for migrant farmworkers or the students of migrant farmworkers. In 2010, Senator Feingold was named a "Friend of Children" by the Wisconsin PTA for his efforts to reform NCLB and increase access to school breakfast programs.

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