From the NCIL Weekly Advocacy Monitor, January 18, 2012
In an issue of the WhAM! released earlier this month, we reported updated information on the Department of Education’s (DOE) Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waivers flexibility program. Now we need your help and we need your stories about your state’s process.
The ESEA Waiver program is labeled by DOE as Regulatory Relief. As of today, 11 states formally submitted requests for the ESEA flexibility waiver: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Requests were submitted based on locally-designed plans that must include public input. Each state’s request can be viewed at the US DOE website. The DOE has not yet announced the results for these requests, but we will keep you updated on the outcomes.
The next deadline date for submissions is February 21, 2012 and we want to make sure the NCIL community has its voice heard. As of December 2, 2011 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico submitted Letters of Intent (LOI) for submitting a formal request by the due date. The states are Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
We asked that you reach out to your State Education Agency (SEA) to have your concerns and comments heard. Now we have been asked to find out what your experience has been with this outreach. If you live in one of the 28 states, Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia, send in your story! Tell us if you have seen this information in your local newspapers, ads run on television, flyers sent home with your children, announcements on the radio, or any other public outreach done by your SEA. Also, tell us if you have not been informed by your SEA about your state’s submission for an ESEA waiver.
We need your stories to inform our government officials and to guarantee that the voices of all people are involved in this process. Please send your email, fax or mail your story to Dara Baldwin, Policy Analyst, at the NCIL office in Washington, DC – email: dara@ncil.org.