OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is up for renewal and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin wants your input.

Concerned residents discussed their concerns with the current act, which includes No Child Left Behind.

The offered their suggestions to a representative from Senator Harkin’s office.

“A certain amount of accountability is totally acceptable however having the accountability based off certain test scores is not. So other ways of measuring progress would be great. Also, not to be punished for certain amounts of progress you don't make would be nice,” said Ottumwa teacher Richard Whortmann.

Whortmann said they need different forms of evaluations, but do to different constraints he sees standardized tests as continuing to be the primary evaluation.

“I hope in the future they try to do some things like for accountability of students not to base everything off of a test score. The tests are expensive and sometimes students had that bad day that day didn’t perform well. They don’t understand the reason why the tests are so important,” Whortmann said.

Senator Harkin calls the current education situation “an emergency” and has introduced a bill to help educators keep their jobs.

The bill is written in an emergency spending format and will provide $23 billion worth of financing.