But will it be a stampede? Consider Utah taking this
big step:
In a rebuke to the Bush administration, the Utah House voted yesterday to prohibit the state's education authorities from using any local money to comply with the president's signature education law, No Child Left Behind.
The vote, by a Republican-dominated chamber, comes after weeks of criticism by lawmakers arguing that the federal education measure impinges on the state's right to set its own education agenda and that the cost of compliance would be too high.
Utah's defiance is the most politically embarrassing challenge by any state so far to the wide-ranging federal law, which penalizes schools that fail to meet rising targets on standardized tests.
Actually, it might have been worse because Utah was well on its way to be the first state to completely opt out of Bush's education law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB). But after a visit from concerned White House and DOE representatives, Utah backed off from this public relations disaster, voting instead to spend only the amount of federal money allotted to them, $103 million, but not a penny more. I will be very interested in finding out how Utah will do this and still comply with NCLB mandates.
A big gorilla, it turns out, may be the feds, the Department of Education, with this
threat:
It wasn't clear which -- if any -- of the 45 No Child provisions are fully funded, and the U.S. Education Department has warned Utah that picking and choosing mandates could affect funds for other education programs.
It would be important to track any punishment to Utah but to other states who may follow Utah's steps.
It's not surprising this red state has come this far. Utah has long been complaining about this intrusion by the federal government. While providing only about 7% of total educational funds, the federal government now has an unprecedented amount of control over public education due to NCLB mandates.
As for that stampede, it looks like it might be starting and it looks awfully bipartisan.
Apparently 20 states are or have been in the process of requesting changes in the law in some way though mostly in the form of nonbinding resolutions.
Last year, Hawaii voted for a nonbinding resolution to opt out of NCLB unless the law is fully funded. Maine, another blue state, is considering a very similar bill to that of Utah's, preventing the state from using its own money to fund NCLB. Next in line to do the same will be the swing state of New Hampshire. This Republican sponsored legislation aims to prohibit spending state money in order to meet NCLB mandates.
The Republican controlled Virginia made a huge to-do in requesting an exemption from NCLB mandates. Minnesota, a blue swing state, is next in line requesting relief from some of the requirements of NCLB. Washington, another swing state, is currently in the process of getting a resolution together to ask Congress and Bush for improvements to NCLB.
It's not surprising the states are rebelling. The Center for Educational Policy has been tracking how states are doing with NCLB requirements at the district level. In their recent report, they find this:
Thirty-eight states (of 48 responding) say they do not have sufficient staff to carry out everything required by the Act, even though local school districts name state education agencies as the resource they rely on most to help them with the law's implementation. At the same time, twenty-four of 40 responding states reported that fiscal problems are adversely affecting their ability to carry out the law, and about half of responding states say that local districts are being hampered by fiscal problems, which can be largely attributed to state budget deficits. These funding and capacity issues will grow, the report warns, as more schools are affected by the law's accountability requirements and as districts move closer to the law's deadlines for improving teacher quality in 2005-06 and student proficiency in 2014.
It doesn't look good, does it. And it's only year two. Remember also that each year the accountability and achievement goals gets progressively difficult to meet.
Whether it be under the mantra of unfunded mandates or framed as the rebellion against unprecedented federal control, this particular cornerstone of our education president is under attack by both parties. While education hasn't been on the forefront in our current election year, NCLB is potentially a huge vulnerability for the Bush administration. Let's hope that we can take advantage of this rebellion and get this information out to voters not only in the swing states but to those in the blue states as well.
