We've long been reading about the negative consequences the No Child Left Behind program is having on school districts nationwide. It looks like a few states and the larges teacher's union in the nation is finally
stepping up to the plate.
More after the break.
WASHINGTON - The nation's largest teachers union and school districts in three states Wednesday launched a legal fight over No Child Left Behind, aiming to free schools from complying with any part of the education law not paid for by the federal government.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for eastern Michigan, is the most sweeping challenge to President Bush's signature education policy. The outcome would apply only to the districts involved but could have implications for all schools nationwide.
Leading the fight is the National Education Association, a union of 2.7 million members that represents many public educators and is financing the lawsuit. The other plaintiffs are nine school districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont, plus 10 NEA chapters in those three states and Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah.
Even Bush's home state (although being a native Texan, I like to remind people that he is from Maine, not Texas) is jumping on the bandwagon.
The challenge is built upon one paragraph in the law that says no state or school district can be forced to spend its money on expenses the federal government has not covered.
"What it means is just what it says -- that you don't have to do anything this law requires unless you receive federal funds to do it," said NEA general counsel Bob Chanin.
"We want the Department of Education to simply do what Congress told it to do. There's a promise in that law, it's unambiguous, and it's not being complied with."
If No Child Left Behind is Bush's signature education plan, why didn't he provide the funds for it?
The suit accuses the government of shortchanging schools by at least $27 billion, the difference between the amount Congress authorized and what it has spent. The shortfall is even larger, the suit says, if the figures include all promised funding for poor children.
The suit, citing a series of cost studies, outlines billions of dollars in expenses to meet the law's mandates. They include the costs of adding yearly testing, getting all children up to grade level in reading and math, and ensuring teachers are highly qualified.
To cover those costs, the suit says, states have shifted money away from such other priorities as foreign languages, art and smaller classes. The money gap has hurt schools' ability to meet progress goals, which in turn has damaged their reputations, the suit says.
Eh. Who needs art, anyway?
Plaintiffs include the Pontiac School District in Michigan, the Laredo Independent School District in Laredo, Texas; the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, Vt.; and six of the school districts that are part of Rutland Northeast in south central Vermont.
The NEA promised to bring the suit almost two years ago and began recruiting states to be plaintiffs. But the union found no takers -- in part because states had no firm cost estimates, and in part because states were wary of the political fallout of suing the federal government.
More than a dozen states, however, are considering anti-No Child Left Behind legislation this year. On Tuesday, the Utah Legislature passed a measure giving state education standards priority over federal ones imposed by No Child Left Behind.
Just like Bush's failed oil ventures in Texas, so goes his signature education policy.