2008 Woodie Awards
Challenging the "No Child Left Behind" Act
Meghan Waters
Issue date: 4/29/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
New lawsuits, from the National Education Association, are erupting over the lack of funding for the No Child Left Behind Acts.
The NEA is suing the Department of Education so that public schools do not have to comply with any requirements in the act that are not funded by the program.
The lawsuit is expected to be filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for Eastern Michigan with three districts filing the suit.
The National Education Association, with nearly 3 million members, is spearheading the suit with nine different plaintiffs including school districts in Vermont, Texas, Connecticut, and Illinois.
The sole defendant is Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, whose job is to defend the NCLB program, in spite of the monetary concerns.
The plaintiffs' argument will finally confront the issue that has been plaguing this program since it was instituted years ago: does the U.S. government and Congress have enough money to pay for the continuation of the NCLB program or not?
The suit is focused on a section of the law that determines that states cannot be forced to pay for any regulations enforced by the federal government.
Spending on No Child Left Behind has increased by nearly half since President Bush took office in 2000 and he has repeatedly asserted that the states receive enough funding to instigate the reforms and regulations.
The suit also claims that pressure to spend money trying to increase testing standards has taken the focus away from spending on foreign language departments, art, and smaller class sizes.
The program has also hurt the reputation of some lower income schools because they cannot meet the minimum standards of "acceptable" education.
The NEA is suing the Department of Education so that public schools do not have to comply with any requirements in the act that are not funded by the program.
The lawsuit is expected to be filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for Eastern Michigan with three districts filing the suit.
The National Education Association, with nearly 3 million members, is spearheading the suit with nine different plaintiffs including school districts in Vermont, Texas, Connecticut, and Illinois.
The sole defendant is Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, whose job is to defend the NCLB program, in spite of the monetary concerns.
The plaintiffs' argument will finally confront the issue that has been plaguing this program since it was instituted years ago: does the U.S. government and Congress have enough money to pay for the continuation of the NCLB program or not?
The suit is focused on a section of the law that determines that states cannot be forced to pay for any regulations enforced by the federal government.
Spending on No Child Left Behind has increased by nearly half since President Bush took office in 2000 and he has repeatedly asserted that the states receive enough funding to instigate the reforms and regulations.
The suit also claims that pressure to spend money trying to increase testing standards has taken the focus away from spending on foreign language departments, art, and smaller class sizes.
The program has also hurt the reputation of some lower income schools because they cannot meet the minimum standards of "acceptable" education.