73rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2005 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .
 
 LC 213
 
                     House Joint Memorial 27
 
Sponsored by Representative AVAKIAN, Senator RINGO;
  Representatives BUCKLEY, DINGFELDER, HUNT, KOMP, MARCH,
  Senators BATES, VERGER
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Urges Congress to amend No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to
provide for waiver and adequate federal funding.
 
                         JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United
  States of America, in Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas Oregon is a national leader in student achievement
through its high academic standards and its successful record of
school accountability; and
  Whereas Congress enacted and the President signed into law the
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which has as its
announced purposes the establishment of high academic standards
in reading, math and science and the implementation of test-based
accountability for achievement of those standards at schools that
do not have accountability; and
  Whereas although NCLB has laudable purposes and may impose
standards and accountability in states that have failed to hold
schools accountable for student achievement, the federal law is
misplaced in its application to Oregon; and
  Whereas despite Oregon's demonstrated significant success in
raising student achievement through standards and accountability,
there is no provision in NCLB to grant waivers from the mandates
of NCLB to states such as Oregon; and
  Whereas a stated goal of NCLB is to provide flexibility for
states to improve academic achievement; and
  Whereas NCLB contains expensive mandates that Congress has not
sufficiently funded and the law's voluminous computerized
record-keeping requirements will cost Oregon literally millions
of dollars that the state does not have, yet is obligated to
spend in order to meet the requirements; and
  Whereas even though Oregon has high student achievement and
accountability standards, NCLB will require Oregon to make
several significant changes in education policy that could
threaten to undermine the success of Oregon's education system;
and
 
  Whereas it is clear that NCLB represents the most sweeping
federal intrusion into state and local control of education in
the history of the United States and egregiously violates the
time-honored American principles of balanced federalism and
respect for state and local prerogatives, especially in the
crucial area of education; and
  Whereas NCLB may violate the Tenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution, which restricts the power of the federal
government to those powers delegated by the United States
Constitution and reserves powers not delegated to the federal
government, such as education, to the states and the people; and
  Whereas although the successful welfare model allowed waivers
from the federal law to states that met basic principles of the
welfare reform law to encourage state innovation and flexibility
in meeting the federal law's broad goals, NCLB does not allow
waivers; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  (1) The Congress of the United States is respectfully requested
to immediately amend the No Child Left Behind Act to include a
mechanism for a waiver from its provisions for school
accountability that shall automatically be granted to states such
as Oregon that have high student achievement and to exempt states
from any of its provisions that are not adequately federally
funded, without such exemption relating to a loss of any federal
funds currently granted to the state in question.
  (2) A copy of this memorial shall be sent to the Senate
Majority Leader and the Secretary of the United States Senate,
the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of
Representatives and each member of the Oregon Congressional
Delegation.
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