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EDUCATION POLICY COMMITTEE

Chair: Rep. Greg Porter (IN)
1st Vice Chair: Representative Earline Parmon (NC)
2nd Vice Chair: Vacant
Policy Staff:  Deana McRae


Committee Members State
Sen. Bettye Davis AK
Rep. Barbara Boyd AL
Rep. Priscila Dunn

AL

Rep. Bruce Morris

CT
Rep. Monique Davis IL
Rep Jim Glenn KY
Sen. Gerald Neal KY
Sen. Sharon Weston Broome LA
Rep. Benjamin Swan MA
Sen. Nathaniel Exum MD
Del. Craig L. Rice MD
Sen. Charlie S. Dannelly NC
Rep. Larry Womble NC
Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland PA
Rep. James Roebuck PA
Rep. Ronald G. Waters PA
Rep. Helen Giddings TX
Del. Mamye E. BaCote VA


 

 

MISSION STATEMENT

This committee compares state educational policies and programs that affect African Americans’ access to quality education. It monitors the equal distribution of resources affecting the success of the African American student in pursuit of higher education and in the achievement of excellence (examples include admission-retention, financial aid, and athletic scholarships). This committee also reviews and develops policies concerning the recruitment and retention of African American students and tenure-track professors at state and federally funded institutions, as well as the financial health and viability of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Closing the Achievement Gap
There is a dangerous achievement gap between wealthy white, suburban public schools and their urban, black, under-funded counterparts—a gap that threatens to undermine the future of the nation. In 2001, the Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education and other NBCSL members met in Gulfport, Mississippi for the 2001 NBCSL Education Symposium to come up with a solution to this alarming problem. The result—Closing the Achievement Gap: Improving Educational Outcomes for African American Children. This white paper serves as a blueprint on how to most effectively address one of America’s most persistent inequities: the black/white student achievement gap.

Download the report

 

No Child Left Behind
NBCSL applauds the goals of the “No Child Left Behind” law (NCLB) and supports the concept of accountability within the public school system. However, NBCSL also recognizes that there are serious fundamental flaws in the law that will prohibit reaching the goal of leaving no child behind. The gap between what was promised in NCLB and President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget is over $9 billion. NBCSL believes that the law’s requirements must be fully funded in order to effectively close the achievement gap, hence the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind resolution. See Resolution 04-45, African American Business Contracts.