Education

INVESTING IN WISCONSIN'S FUTURE

“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 preschool and beyond.

I have been a leader in giving public schools the support they deserve so that all of our schoolchildren receive the attention they need. I’ve fought for smaller class sizes and adequate funding for programs ranging from Title I to IDEA grants, from after-school programs for students to professional development programs for teachers.

Local school districts should maintain control over decisions that affect our children's day-to-day classroom experiences. For this reason, I have opposed conditions set by the federal government that would establish mandatory testing of all students – bills like No Child Left Behind (NCLB). We should leave decisions about the means and frequency 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.

Higher education is a key to the door to success in this country. Without a college degree, or significant 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 college. 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 voted 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 that Wisconsin parents, teachers, and school administrators alike overwhelmingly believe needs to be fixed.

As part of that effort, Russ is the lead sponsor of the Improving Student Testing 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. The Improving Student Testing Act would:

• Reform NCLB's mandates on high stakes testing by encouraging states and local districts, through grants, to create higher quality measurements of student performance that that can be specific to the individual state or local school district and that are peer reviewed and designed to modify the law's current focus on low-level multiple-choice tests. The bill also reforms the federal testing mandate altogether. Instead of annual federal testing in grades 3-8 and only once in high school, Feingold's bill allows states to choose to annually assess students at least once in grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12.
• Provide the flexibility to states and local districts to come up with alternative growth models so that schools and teachers are better able to measure academic progress for each student regardless of his or her current academic level.
• Waive the 2014 deadline for any year Congress does not fully fund Title I, Part A.
• Improve the peer review process 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.
• Requires states to separate out 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. 
• Increases access to federal funding and creates competitive and flexible grant programs to provide funds to states and local school districts to help build or rebuild technical infrastructure and accountability systems.
• Improve systems that help ensure the privacy of 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 follow-up with 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.

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

Pell Grants are a cornerstone of student aid packages across Wisconsin and around the country. Since his work with Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) in 2001, Russ has successfully helped increase the individual maximum Pell Grant award nearly 40% to approximately $4,700 per individual. These valuable grants help more 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 the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP), which uses federal and state funds to provide need-based grants to academically qualified students. He continues to push for sufficient funding of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) – a program designed to help lower-income students enter college. He 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.