Joan Bibeau, a kindergarten and early childhood teacher at Eagleview Elementary in Grand Rapids, testified May 11 regarding the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor.

She shared NCLB's impact on Minnesota teachers and the challenges of adhering to the law’s provisions in light of funding shortfalls. teacher recruitment and declining enrollment problems, and limited professional development resources that are especially profound in her rural northern Minnesota district.

“It often seems as though the rules were made without regard to the actual needs of our students and the realities of our work as teachers," said Bibeau. "If I had one suggestion for the Committee, it would be this: Improve the law so that it recognizes the actual world we teach in and then provide educators with the tools and resources we know are essential to helping our students succeed.”

Bibeau was nominated by Education Minnesota, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association and selected by the House Committee to give her testimony. She has taught for 34 years, with the last 20 years in District 318 on the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation. In 2005, she was named the Minnesota American Indian Association Teacher of the Year.