ESEA reauthorization goes to the floor: WEIGH IN!

ESEA is heading to the floor this week and now is the time to talk to your Representative about it!
Today at 4 pm was the deadline for amendments to the bill that came out of committee; you can find all of those amendments here.  You'll note that among them is Rep. Miller's substitute bill (number 12 in the list) which (as previously noted) is pretty close to much of what the current administration has been doing.
There's also a number of other issues that are hit in these; among them:

• changing the explicit "opt-out" provision in NCLB on military recruiting to an "opt-in" provision (that's from Rep. Kraft of California). 
• several that continue to beat the STEM drum even more   
• strikes the requirement that other languages be used on school documents (that one from Rep. Broun out of Georgia)
• several including this one from Rep. Kline that specifies that those who don't take federal funds don't have to follow this law.
• Rep. Polis amending to require the differentiated reporting that currently is required by NCLB. 
• Another one from Polis expanding (I think?) charter school funding
• Polis also requiring that states report on teacher preparation
• Rep. Cantor's amendment that would allow Title I funding to follow the pupil (this one had been rumored); Rep. Bishop of Utah has a similar one
• Rep. Luetkemeyer's amendment which largely seems to be a sort of statement of purpose: that education is a local matter.
• Rep. Carson's (of Indiana) amendment which is concerned with the misuse of law enforcement in schools to enforce discipline
• a bi-partisan PE amendment
• an amendment that seems to hear the lacks under NCLB, as it calls for "grants to strengthen the instruction of music and arts, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, history, geography, and physical education and health as an integral part of the elementary and secondary school curriculum." (that's from Rep. Takano again)
• Rep. Takano is also concerned about the lifting of maintenance of effort as a requirement, as is Rep. Davis of Illinois, as is Rep. DelBene of Washington; the amendment restores it as a requirement.
• Rep. Culbertson of Texas proposes dedicating any refused federal funds (which the amendment allows states to turn down) to paying down the national debt
• Sad one coming in from Rep. Etsy of Connecticut, allowing schools that experience tragedy to apply for federal funds for site construction (the Connecticut 5th includes Newtown)
• Rep. Davis of Illinois and others amend with a concern on the lifting of the 1% cap on alternative assessment for students in special education
• several representatives (from rural areas) wanting to change the Title I allocation
• Rep. Reed (Republican of New York; not sure where this thought's coming from) with expansion (or continued?) of federal role in oversight of underperforming schools
• Rep. Bentivolio of Michigan is looking for an expanded private role in educational oversight

• and one that I'm a bit excited to see: a bipartisan call for an end to the grades 3-8 testing requirement. This is from Rep. Gibson of New York and Rep. Takano of California 

That isn't all of them; that's just the ones that jumped out at me. I would urge you to get in touch with your rep (you can contact them from the House of Representative page) and WEIGH IN!