Q&A with Marian Wright Edelman

CHILD ADVOCATE

The Children’s Defense Fund’s slogan is “Leave No Child Behind.” Sound familiar? They had it first. NEA Today talked recently with CDF leader Marian Wright Edelman.

How did you feel when the Administration used your motto?

Edelman: Not good. It’s our trademark. We thought about suing, [but] that would be expensive, so we just decided to talk to people about the fact that this was a nice slogan but they were not honoring it, and in fact it was a smoke screen for policies that left millions of children behind. We had introduced our own bill [in 2003], the Act to Leave No Child Behind, and after No Child Left Behind got in, a lot of folks called up and said, “How could you do this?” And we kept trying to say, “This isn’t our bill.”

Are there parts of NCLB that you like?

Edelman: We applaud disaggregating data for sub-groups of children, so we can see who is learning and who is not. But then the question is, are the resources there to do something about it? And we’ve been concerned that people are teaching to the test. Children are far more than their tests. The overreliance on testing is stifling creativity.

What was in your own Act to Leave No Child Behind?

Edelman: It would ensure health care for all children; reform child welfare systems to keep children in their families; end child poverty; and provide increased resources for schools. Children don’t come in pieces, they come in families, and families live in communities. You have to address all the things that impact them. It would cost less than the repeal of the estate tax.

What happened to it?

Edelman: Five or six [parts] did pass, including a child tax credit, which lifted 500,000 children from poverty. And we’re going to go back now. I think of it as renovating our whole national house, room by room. The room we’re trying to renovate this year is the health room. We have 9 million uninsured children, 90 percent of them in working families. Our new bill [would] cover all uninsured children. The cost would be $14.8 billion. A bargain. It’s not even a comma in terms of what we’re spending in Iraq. 

CDF is allied with NEA and 100 other organizations in seeking changes to ESEA/NCLB. Read more at www.nea.org/ref?3249.