Barnes Applauds Bipartisan No Child Left Behind Legislation

Today, Congressman Sam Graves finally joined Kay Barnes' call to suspend penalties related to the broken No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) until Washington fixes this flawed legislation. Barnes, who demanded last week that Congress stop punishing schools and teachers for its failure to fix NCLB, lauded the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Timothy Walz (D-MN).
"I applaud Sam Graves for his election year conversion on education issues," Barnes said. "For eight years, Graves sided with President Bush to create No Child Left Behind, only to repeatedly underfund this program by billions. It's about time that Sam Graves listened to hardworking Missouri teachers, who are struggling under this misguided federal policy. I'm just sorry that it has taken a tough reelection campaign for him to come around."
Barnes, who last week unveiled her 6th District-wide "Teachers for Kay" group, pointed out that Congressman Graves has not been a friend to teachers in the Congress. He received low marks on education in recent years, such as a 0 percent rating from the National Association of Elementary School Principals, 15 percent from the National Parent Teacher Association, and 30 percent from the National Education Association.
"The men and women on the front lines of our education system have been calling on Graves and the Congress to fix No Child Left Behind since it was passed in 2001. Again and again, Congressman Graves and Washington passed the buck. Each day that Congress failed to fix No Child Left Behind, our schools, teachers, and children suffered. It is only right that we finally place a moratorium on penalties associated with NCLB until the legislation is fixed.
Continued Barnes: "As a former schoolteacher and parent of two children, I know how important it is that we have strong schools in our communities. We must provide the proper funding and suspend these harmful penalties until Congress fixes its failed laws. You've been in Washington too long if you think we should hold our schoolchildren to a higher standard than Members of Congress."