ASSAULT ON INDEPENDENT PARENT CENTERS

The Administration and Congress are poised to turn their backs on independently funded centers that provide information and support directly to parents.

In a quiet maneuver, the White House proposed a change in the focus of state Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) currently funded under Goals 2000. Those Centers, under the Administration’s bill, would no longer have to be parent organizations. They would focus their energies on providing technical assistance and professional development to schools, districts, and state educational agencies, and not directly to parents. The assistance would focus on helping schools learn how to involve parents, particularly using the early childhood models of Parents as Teachers and Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters programs.

This proposal would drastically change the focus of the PIRCs and take away the one program that is currently providing families with an independent source of support and information around ESEA and Goals 2000.

The Administration’s PIRC language is contained in the ESEA bills sponsored by Senator Kennedy (D-MA) and Representative Clay (D-MO). On the Senate side, Senator Kennedy’s bill is the starting point for negotiations with Chairman Jeffords (R-VT). If committee members don’t hear enough protests from their constituencies, parents will lose this resource.

CLE has drafted and pressed for amendments to the PIRC language that would restore PIRCs to their original purpose, and strengthen them – to provide assistance to parents to better understand their children’s educational needs and rights, to participate more effectively in the education of their children by gaining a better understanding of teaching and learning, and to support meaningful participation of families in the monitoring, assessment, and implementation of programs that assist children to meet challenging state standards.

Meanwhile, efforts to expand independent information, support, and training for parents have met with significant resistance from Democrats who prefer to give the money to schools to run parent centers themselves. CLE, along with the National Council of La Raza and the Center for Community Change, has proposed to add LFIC’s to ESEA. LFICs would serve to complement and deepen the activities of the PIRCs. These independent, local nonprofit parent centers would receive grants from the U.S. Dept. of Education to provide training, support, and information to families of students in Title I schools regarding the parent involvement, quality programming, accountability, and other provisions of Title I, and to assist parents to effectively communicate with schools and school personnel about their children’s education. It is essential that local parent centers, working in tandem with state PIRCs assist parents in holding schools accountable for helping all students meet state standards.

Some Hill staffers believe that parent information centers ought to be funded and controlled through schools and school districts. Such an approach assumes that there is not a need for independent centers focused on providing parents with the information, training, and support they need to collaborate with schools on reforms and/or to create pressure for those reforms, as need be.

Taken together, the Administration’s revision of the PIRC mission – serving schools instead of parents – and the reticence to support locally based, independent family information centers dramatically demonstrate the need to educate staffers and Congressional members about why families ought to have an independent voice in the educational system.

This is why we have included in this Washington Update the names and phone numbers of the Committee members who need to hear from you about why parent centers are necessary and why it is important for there to be parent centers which exist independently from the school and school district. It is particularly important for you to explain why, in your experience, independent centers for parents work and are needed. Do schools sometimes fail to provide needed information and welcoming environments? Do some parents feel more comfortable reaching out to other parents in a neutral environment? Etc. Please call or write committee members, particularly if you live in their state or district.

We have also created SAMPLE LETTERS to assist you in communicating with your House and Senate members. Please use them as starting points for your own letters, with your own experiences.

Finally, we have a fact sheet, entitled: Why Congress Should Support Independent Family Centers. Please print this fact sheet, send it with your letters to Congress, and have others do the same.

Let us know of any response you receive from your members. Call 202/986-3000 or e-mail cle@cleweb.org. Ask for Christine Stoneman or Margot Rogers.

Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Members: (202)

Chair Jim Jeffords (R-VT), ed. staff 224-6770

Judd Gregg (R-NH) 224-3324

Bill Frist (R-TN) 224-3344

Mike DeWine (R-OH) 224-2315

Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) 224-3424

Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) 224-2353

Susan M. Collins (R-ME) 224-2523

Chuck Hagel (R-NE) 224-4224

Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 224-4124

Edward Kennedy (D-MA), ed staff 224-5501

Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) 224-2823

Tom Harkin (D-IA)224-3254

Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) 224-4654

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) 224-5521

Paul Wellstone (D-MN) 224-5641

Patty Murray (D-WA) 224-2621

Jack Reed (D-RI) 224-4642

House Education and the Workforce Committee Members (202):

Chairman William Goodling (R-PA) 225-5836

Thomas Petri (R-WI) 225-2476

Marge Roukema (R-NJ) 225-4465

Cass Ballenger (R-NC) 225-2576

Bill Barrett (R-NE) 225-6435

John Boehner (R-OH) 225-6205

Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) 225-4401

Howard McKeon (R-CA) 225-1956

Michael Castle (R-DE) 225-4165

Sam Johnson (R-TX) 225-4201

James Talent (R-MO) 225-2561

Jim Greenwood (R-PA) 225-4276

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 225-5301

Mark Souder (R-IN) 225-4436

David McIntosh (R-IN) 225-3021

Charles Norwood (R-GA) 225-4101

Ron Paul (R-TX) 225-2831

Bob Schaffer (R-CO) 225-4676

Fred Upton (R-MI) 225-3761

Nathan Deal (R-GA) 225-5211

Van Hilleary (R-TN) 225-6831

Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) 225-3831

Matt Salmon (R-AZ) 225-2635

Thomas Tancredo (R-CO) 225-7882

Ernest Fletcher (R-KY) 225-4706

Jim DeMint (R-SC) 225-6030

William Clay (D-MO) 225-2406

George Miller (D-CA) 225-2095

Dale Kildee (D-MI) 225-3611

Mathew G. Martinez (D-CA) 225-5464

Major Owens (D-NY) 225-6231

Donald Payne (D-NJ) 225-3436

Patsy Mink (D-HI) 225-4906

Robert E. Andrews (D-NJ) 225-6501

Tim Roemer (D-IN) 225-3915

Bobby Scott (D-VA) 225-8351

Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) 225-5161

Carlos Romero-Barcelo (D-PR) 225-2615

Chaka Fattah (D-PA) 225-4001

Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) 225-2531

Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) 225-5516

John Tierney (D-MA) 225-8020

Ron Kind (D-WI) 225-5506

Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) 225-2965

Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) 225-3265

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) 225-5871

David Wu (D-OR) 225-0855

Rush Holt (D-NJ) 225-5801