Before turning the floor over to representatives from the U.S. Government, Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole was told to ‘take charge of his city’ by a group of protesters.

A group of SIUC students made a late entrance to Tuesday night’s City Council meeting claiming they did not feel safe on or off campus.

“This is not a knock on the Carbondale Police, but to those who are ignorant to change,” said group spokesman Bryan Lamar. After making their statements, the group abruptly left the council chambers.

Advertisement

The only item on the agenda for general business was a presentation. Following that, Todd Zoellick, deputy secretary’s regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education for Region V, answered questions about the approaching decision of reauthorizing the “No Child Left Behind” program.

“The interesting thing about the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program, unlike other pieces of legislation, is that it has no sunset revison,” Zoellick said.

A sunset revision allows a law to expire unless it is reinstated by the congress. Even if “No Child Left Behind” is not reauthorized, it will still be a law.

Zoellick spoke and answered questions for an hour and met with audience members after the meeting was adjourned. Most of the questions he faced were from teachers in surrounding school districts who felt their students were not receiving the same opportunity as students in larger school districts.

SIUC doctoral student Beverly Love of Carbondale expressed concern about state education standards Illinois students face and how they compare to those in other states. Love said she wondered if graduating students from Illinois could compete in the job market.

“I think they’re (students) getting excellent opportunities in Illinois,” Zoellick said.

Zoellick said he could not think of a negative impact of the “No Child Left Behind” program, but admitted it was not a perfect program.

Advertisement*

The U.S. Congress is currently debating the “No Child Left Behind” program but it has not yet approached a committee. No timeline has been set on a decision from the U.S. Congress.

Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 274 or [email protected].