Education mandate needs cash to succeed

By LAURA SCOTT
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
When the Republican-led Utah House called the president's bluff on No Child Left Behind last month, it was an eye-opener.
Certainly other states have taken stands against this intrusive federal education law.
But the Utah vote against spending one dime of state or local money on No Child Left Behind was much more dramatic.
Vermont has passed a similar measure, but Utah is heavily Republican. The House vote shows that discontent with No Child Left Behind runs through both major political parties.
Virginia's House of Delegates last month asked Congress to exempt that state from the law. The Republicans also hold the majority in the House there. Other states are considering measures that call on Congress to improve funding or release the states from certain requirements.
These measures reflect an underlying issue about No Child Left Behind that has kept states seething: It is an unfunded federal mandate.
Utah House Speaker Martin R. Stephens said Utah's legislation is a "statement bill."
"If it [No Child Left Behind]) is fully funded, then we'll implement it. And, if it's not, if there are requirements for which there are not enough federal funds, then we won't," he said.
Left in the middle
In the middle of this, of course, are the children that No Child Left Behind was supposed to help. If the states do not comply with the law, either by choice or because they cannot afford to, the goal of helping children to succeed will not be met.
That goal is laudable, but this law has flaws, funding notwithstanding. Educators and superintendents worry about meeting the law's high expectations of student achievement soon enough, particularly in helping children with English as a second language and those with learning disabilities.
State legislators are starting to worry about the price.
The act is part of a disturbing trend of the federal government sticking its nose into state education matters. Education historically has been a state-local responsibility, and many states were well on the road to improving their own standards and testing. Now they are finding the federal law interferes with those efforts.
No Child Left Behind represents quite a change in the thinking of Republicans, who used to be for states' rights and who would rail against the federal education bureaucracy.
Too often the norm
Unfortunately, unfunded federal requirements are becoming somewhat the norm in Washington, and the states are rebelling.
Special education was the best example of this until No Child Left Behind came along. Congress in 1975 passed tough new requirements for educating pupils with special needs and promised to pay 40 percent of the costs.
But the amount appropriated has been less than half of that. The states and schools must pay the bill, and they often must take funding from other programs to do so.
To be sure, No Child Left Behind also sends billions of federal dollars to the states. President Bush says the money is enough. A growing number of states say it isn't.
Several states have studies under way to determine the actual cost of the law. That should help cut through the rhetoric.
Ohio, for example, says it will spend about $1.5 billion each year -- much more than it now gets from the federal government to implement the law.
Critics say the Republican Congress appropriated $8 billion less last year than originally promised.
Questions from Democrats
Congressional Democrats, many of whom voted for the law, now are raising questions about it, including Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry.
Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas, among others, has introduced legislation to prohibit the federal government from penalizing school districts for failing to meet the law's educational goals until the feds put up the money.
States are cash-strapped because of the economy. They often don't have the dollars to pay their teachers decently, to keep classrooms from becoming crowded, and to keep schools from being closed.
And so they don't have the money to pay for additional testing, more and better teachers, summer school, after-school classes and tutoring -- the result of No Child Left Behind.
XLaura Scott is a columnist for The Kansas City Star.