General Feed
The opening lines from this article in today's New York Times say it all:
Concluding a yearlong study on the effectiveness of President Bush's sweeping education law, No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers drawn from many states yesterday pronounced it a flawed, convoluted and unconstitutional education reform initiative that has usurped state and local control of public schools.
Here's my favorite section from the piece:
One chapter of the report says that the Constitution does not delegate powers to educate the nation's citizens to the federal government, thereby leaving education under state control. The report contends that No Child Left Behind has greatly expanded federal powers to a degree that is unconstitutional..
"This assertion of federal authority into an area historically reserved to the states has had the effect of curtailing additional state innovations and undermining many that had occurred during the past three decades," the report said.
"The task force does not believe that N.C.L.B. is constitutional," it said.
Amen. In my opinion, NCLB was the first signal that the Bush administration was going to be a fiscal nightmare.
Click Here to Read the Entire NY Times Article (free subscription required)
"No Child Left Behind" Trashed in New Report
Posted by Tad DeHaven - February 24, 2005Thoughts? Add Comment -
Demian said on Feb 24 2005 at 2:14pm
Yesterday the Washington Times reported that Utah is preparing to pull out of this federalized education initiative...
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050222-111910-7518r.htm
"Utah's state Legislature is poised to repudiate the No Child Left Behind Act and spurn $116 million in federal aid tied to it because state policy-makers are fed up with federal control of education and dictates."
It sounds like they are ready to forgo all the $$$ to run education themselves. If they leave, I hope other states follow them out the door, too.
Matt said on Feb 25 2005 at 12:32am
It's a strange (and more than a little scary) day when fiscal conservatism and Constitutionalism put one on the same team as the NEA.
Demian said on Feb 25 2005 at 8:15am
Another state:
Today the Washington ComPost reports that Virginia is conducting a cost-benefit analysis to see if it is worth it for the Commonwealth to continue in the NCLB program:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51520-2005Feb24.html
Excerpt: "It's going to cost us a whole lot more to stay in then to get out," said Del. James H. Dillard II (R-Fairfax), chairman of the House's Education Committee and one of the assembly's most vocal critics of the law."
Unfortunately I bet Congress will loosen restrictions for getting NCLB $$$ rather than scale back this federal overreach.
TJ said on Feb 25 2005 at 12:00pm
I agree, the Federal Govt should not be involved in schooling ... so stop all federal funding.
OTOH, as long as federal monies are being spent the Federal Govt most certainly does have a place in providing guidance / oversight on the organizations that are spending that money.
/TJ
NIF
John Berthoud said on Mar 01 2005 at 4:24pm
The really stunning thing about NCLB is the massive amount of new federal spending it has created. Education spending has grown twice as fast as military spending since 2001 (yes, that would be the year of the start of the War on Terrorism). Of course, to the teacher unions and their puppets (Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, et al), we're still "under-funding" education.
NCLB should really have been called "No Dollar Left Behind."