Last week, I represented NAESP at the Learning First Alliance (LFA) Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit assembled 17 national organizations that collectively represent 10 million people, and demonstrated the true meaning of strength in numbers. One goal of LFA was to establish united messages regarding pertinent issues in education, and LFA convened panels to provide attendees with outside perspectives on these issues.
One of the panels addressed the Common Core State Standards initiative and included representatives from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The summit’s attendees generally agreed with the concepts behind the standards, but questions emerged as a result of the discussion.
A senior adviser to Rep. Dick Gephardt and a former Republican staff director for the House Committee on Education & Labor provided an overview of the probability of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the consensus was that it would not happen before the 2010 elections. Both agreed that members of Congress were spending a lot of time on the campaign trail and bringing constituents’ issues back to the halls of Congress. They cited an example of a conversation between a member of Congress and a local elementary school principal that made its way to Washington. 
Point being made: Let your voice be heard. 
—Diane Cargile, NAESP President