Action needed to restore Title V funding of No Child Left Behind issue
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill for education for 2005-2006 which eliminates Title V, Part A (Innovative Programs) of No Child Left Behind, a program that provides materials and services to meet the needs of students in both public and nonpublic schools. This action was taken in spite of a 5.7 percent increase in education spending. The House has already reduced Title V spending from $296.5M to $20M in its version of the budget bill.
The New Jersey Catholic Conference and the New Jersey ALLIANCE of Catholic School Families have supported Title V and other appropriate titles of No Child Left Behind in which there is equitable participation of nonpublic school teachers and students. Title V has provided materials, equipment and services to meet students’ needs, as those needs are identified by local administrators. In one school, for example, the funding might be used for mediation, while in another for library books, and still another, for professional development. According to NJCC, “this is really the major program in No Child Left Behind in which all students, regardless of their achievement, ability level or poverty status, receive benefits.”
NJCC reports that there has been a“major effort” on the part of both public and nonpublic groups to save Title V, and that an aide from Senator Frank Lautenberg’s office indicated she was being “bombarded” with calls about Title V. NJCC hopes that the Senate can reverse the action of its Appropriations Committee.
Voters are urged to write, E-mail, telephone, or fax the offices of Senators Jon Corzine and Lautenberg in both their Washington and New Jersey offices to ask that they support the reinstatement of Title V at the FY’04 level of funding.
Senators Corzine and Lautenberg can
be reached as follows: Senator Frank
Lautenberg, 324 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510, (202) 224-3224,
FAX (202) 228-4054, and at One Gateway
Center, 23rd Floor, Newark, NJ 07102, (973)
639-8700, FAX (973) 639-8723; Senator Jon
Corzine, 502 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC, 20510, (202) 224-4744,
FAX (202) 228-2197, and at One Newark
Center, 14th Floor, Newark, NJ, 07102, (973)
645-3030, FAX (973) 645-0502.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law