To: The United States House of Representatives

Tell the House: Keep Moving Education Forward

I urge you to follow the lead of the U.S. Senate and pass a bipartisan education bill that will:

- Keep federal funding in the schools that need it most, and provide resources to struggling schools to help them implement innovative ideas like community schools that address the impacts of poverty.

- Restore the love of teaching and learning by cutting back the wall-to-wall testing and ending the high-stakes “test-and-punish” accountability systems of No Child Left Behind.

- Treat teachers as professionals by giving them the tools, time and trust to teach, and ending the federal government’s role in teacher evaluation.

Why is this important?

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is now nearly eight years overdue for an update. The Senate has made important progress by drafting a bipartisan bill that may be voted on in June. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives has made much less headway.

Our education system is critical to our children and our economy. We need to reimagine what education can be, to give all kids the opportunity to learn academic content as well as life skills such as problem solving, creative thinking and perseverance.

To do that, we need to move away from “test-and-punish” accountability systems that turn kids into test scores and teachers into algorithms, and get back to project-based learning and rich curricula that create a joy of learning and teaching.

We need to ensure that federal help is being used wisely to give all kids a chance to get a great public education. With proper targeting, we can ensure all kids have access to educational opportunity, no matter where they live or how much money their parents make. 

We need the federal government to stop creating one-size-fits-all models for school improvement. And school districts, as well as state and local elected officials, should be held accountable for helping struggling schools gain the resources and supports needed to succeed.

Send your representative a message: Ask them to help reclaim the promise of public education by passing an ESEA reauthorization bill that addresses these key priorities.