"NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" LOSING STEAM
Christian Science Monitor -- March 21, 2007
by Gail Russell Chaddock
Washington -- Support for No Child Left Behind
President Bush's signature education reform is
fraying as it heads into reauthorization this year.
The heaviest criticism is coming from within his
own party. Conservative Republicans in the House
and Senate introduced bills last week that allow
states to opt out of most of the law's
requirements, while keeping federal funding.
Backers of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) say that move would gut the law.
Even supporters say that changes are needed.
"This is a critical year. It's very important
that we perfect and tweak NCLB as we move
forward," US Education Secretary Margaret
Spellings told urban school leaders in
Washington this week. "There are lots of forces
aligning on both sides of the poles to unravel
or unwind NCLB, but I don't think that's going
to happen," she told the Council of the Great City Schools.
At the heart of this sweeping education reform
is a mandate that states annually test students
in Grades 3 through 8 in reading and math.
Schools that fail to show "adequate yearly
progress" in student achievement face sanctions
ranging from cuts in federal funding to a requirement to shut down.
The reform passed Congress with big bipartisan
majorities in 2001. But problems in implementing
NCLB have spawned criticism from principals,
teachers, parents, education groups, and across the political spectrum.
Doubts loom especially large for GOP
conservatives, who swept into power in the House
in 1995 on a promise to reduce the size of the
federal government and abolish the US Department of Education.
"It's pretty obvious that the consensus that led
to [NCLB] six years ago is unraveling," says
Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute and a former Reagan-era education
official. "How badly it unravels over what
period of time is what we don't know yet."
Democrats want more federal funding
Democrats, who now control both the House and
Senate, say that they initially supported NCLB
on the promise that federal funding would give
schools the resources they needed to implement
the new law. While federal funding for public
schools has increased by a third since the law
was enacted, it still has been underfunded by
some $70.9 billion, below levels authorized by
law, say critics ranging from top Democrats to
education associations and teachers unions.
"Year after year, the president sends us a
budget that comes nowhere close to funding No
Child Left Behind at an adequate level," said
Sen. Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa, who chairs the
education subcommittee of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, at a hearing on NCLB
funding last week. The president's budget for
fiscal year '08 underfunds the law by $14.8
billion, he adds. "The numbers have gotten almost laughable."
Democrats also aim to revise aspects of how the
law is implemented, including revising
strategies for turning around low-performing
schools. Of some 90,000 public schools, about
9,000 have been targeted by NCLB as needing
improvement. "We want to make turning around our
most struggling schools a priority in this
reauthorization," says Roberto Rodriguez, senior
education adviser to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of
Massachusetts, who chairs the Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. That
panel is considering shifting to alternative
measures of "adequate yearly progress,"
including models that account for the
improvement of individual students over a school
year, rather than whether they meet target proficiency standards.
But Democrats say they are still committed to a
key assumption of the NCLB law: that the federal
government should be involved in leveraging
higher achievement in local schools. That is not the case among Republicans.
On the House side, 52 Republicans, including
minority whip Roy Blunt, are cosponsoring the
A-Plus Act, introduced by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R)
of Michigan. Thirty-three Republicans voted
against the NCLB bill, most of whom are
cosponsoring the Hoekstra bill. This bill, along
with a companion bill in the Senate, revives a
formula that drove GOP education policy in the
1990s: that the best route to accountability is
through local control and parental choice, not a
bigger federal footprint on education.
"We must move education decisionmaking out of
Washington closer to where it belongs with
parents and teachers," said Sen. John Cornyn (R)
of Texas, a cosponsor of the Senate version of
this bill and typically one of the strongest
supporters of the Bush administration in the Senate.
In a bid to bridge the gap in GOP ranks, House
majority leader John Boehner (R) of Ohio is
reminding Republicans that choice was once a
part of the No Child Left Behind bill, but was
dropped during negotiations with Democrats. Mr.
Boehner was one of the original sponsors of NCLB
with Rep. George Miller (D) of California.
President Bush signed the bill into law in Boehner's district.
"As the No Child Left Behind Act comes up for
reauthorization, House Republicans will
challenge Democrats to explain why we can't
provide more choices for parents and more local
control for states and communities that are
willing to commit to increasing student
achievement," Boehner said in a statement.
Few use school choice provision
Under the terms of existing NCLB law, students
attending chronically low- performing schools
can choose to attend more successful public
schools. But the provision has been little used,
because so few seats are available in
alternative schools. Conservatives want to offer
such students $4,000 scholarships to attend
private schools, including religious schools.
"Even the two relatively minor choice options in
NCLB have proven to be relatively ineffective
because the powers that be have found ways to
avoid them," says Michael Franc, vice president
of government relations for the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank. "The more
robust choice provisions never made it through.
Conservatives believe that choice is the ultimate accountability."
But the choice option sets up a conflict within
the bipartisan NCLB coalition that could sink
prospects for reauthorization this year
putting adjustments to the bill beyond the 2008 presidential election.
Democrats, strongly backed by teachers unions,
say that private-school vouchers would drain
critically needed federal dollars from public schools. They oppose the move.
"There is still strong middle ground for NCLB,"
says Sandy Kress, a former top Bush education
adviser, who now consults with education and
business groups. But he warns that the opt-out
proposed by Republicans could sink the
reauthorization. "Republicans used to stand for
rigor and standards, but no money for education.
Now they seem to be for the money, but no standards."
Meanwhile, Congress is pursuing hearings on the
new law in both the House and Senate, with hopes
of taking up legislation by early summer.
Education groups are urging early action.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0321/p01s01-legn.html