Sharing Web Resources

The Child Defense Fund (CDF) is the organization that I chose, and can be found at, http://www.childrensdefense.org/home.html. The focus of this organization is to “ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.” They talk about being the voice for all children since they cannot vote. The CDF was set up to educate the community about the importance of keeping children healthy and keeping them in school.

One issue that caught my attention also involves what we have been talking about this week. In the newsletter that I read, there was a headline that stated, Congress Leaves Student Accountability Behind. The issue at hand is that legislators are not taken into account the accountability that they must have when it comes to our children’s education. The CDF wrote a letter addressed to two senators who are part of the Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions. The first sentence read:

On behalf of the millions of students with disabilities, low-income students, students of color and English-language learners studying in our nation’s schools, we would like to offer our initial comments on your Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization proposal. (Edelman, Haycock, Henderson, Murgia, Podesta, & Wendorf, 2011)

Six people came together to write this article and wrote out their proposals and what they thought was wrong. They mentioned how states were setting their standards too low and taking advantage of the system. The letter mentions setting long-term state wide goals and demanding that the gap be closed for higher learning achievement.

The CDF wants the best for every child and devotes all their efforts to make sure that every child is getting the same education. They want funding for all day kindergarten so that children do not miss important foundational steps. The CDF works on lowering dropout rates in hopes of seeing more children graduate from high school.

References:

Edelman, M., Haycock, K., Henderson, W., Murgia, J., Podesta, J., & Wendorf, J. (October 11, 2011). The reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act. Retrieved from http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/Harkin-Enzi-ESEA-goals-letter.pdf