Teachers Challenge No Child Left Behind

Sept. 9 -- The nation's largest teachers union is preparing a challenge to the No Child Left Behind Act, claiming the federal government has not provided enough funding for states to comply.

Adequate funding is an essential part of the law, passed in 2001 and signed by President Bush in January 2002, because of the cost of the testing regime schools must put into place, and because there are strict penalties for schools that do not meet the act's benchmarks.

The National Education Association is working on a legal challenge asserting that not enough federal aid has been appropriated for schools to prepare for and administer the tests in order for them to be in compliance with No Child Left Behind.

NEA spokesman Dan Kaufman said the organization is working with several states and individual school districts to have them take the lead in the planned suit, "because they are the ones most directly affected."

The proposed legal action has drawn the support of the American Association of School Administrators, a professional organization of more than 14,000 school officials in the United States and other countries.

"Ever since the act was introduced and debated in Congress, school administrators nationwide have been raising similar concerns about the bill's potential billions of dollars in unfunded education mandates," AASA Executive Director Paul Houston said in a written statement.

"AASA regrets that the administration and the Department of Education have chosen to use polarizing rhetoric rather than dollars to support this law," he added. States and local school districts need sufficient funds to ensure the successful implementation of NCLB."

How Much Is Enough?

Republican lawmakers say that a report by the General Accounting Office, a Congressional government watchdog group, provides proof that NCLB is being adequately funded.

They note that the study's highest estimate of the costs of NCLB testing was nearly $2 billion less than some estimates by critics of the law.