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Nclb law comes under fire in arizona Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0311teachers11.htmlhttp://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0311teachers11.html
No Child Left Behind law comes under fire in state
Robbie Sherwood
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 11, 2004 12:00 AM
U.S. Department of Education officials are having to defend the far-reaching reforms in President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act from a two-pronged political attack in Arizona.
On one side, teachers are rebelling at the behest of the Arizona Education Association, a union that brought nearly 4,000 educators to the Capitol last week to protest, among other things, the lack of funding behind the new testing and accountability requirements in No Child Left Behind.
On the other front, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to divorce Arizona altogether from No Child Left Behind mandates they deemed punitive and underfunded by $167 million. That move that could cost public schools $340 million in federal education funds tied to complying with the act.
The House Appropriations Committee backed opting out when it approved House Bill 2594 by a vote of 11-4 late Tuesday, putting Arizona with more than a dozen other state legislatures that are bristling under the new requirements.
Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, said critics should remember that the reforms are not political and are aimed at helping children improve academically. Aspey said that No Child Left Behind is adequately funded and that President Bush has increased education funding by 36 percent since taking office.
And she said No Child Left Behind standards should not be called mandates because states make 80 percent of the decisions in crafting plans to conform, or they have the option of not participating.
"The only so-called mandate is that a third-grader be able to read and do math at the third-grade level," Aspey said.
She said teachers who are upset because Paige recently likened the National Education Association to a "terrorist organization" should know that he apologized almost immediately. She added that the No Child Left Behind Act is in the second year of a 12-year implementation, so there will be "growing pains."
Tom Horne, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, calls the act badly written but favors pushing for reforms in Congress, not turning away funds that go primarily to low-income, minority students.
But House Majority Leader Eddie Farnsworth believes Arizona can actually save money if schools no longer have to focus staff and resources to comply with federal laws. Farnsworth supports Bush, but recently told federal education officials that he believes they have no constitutional authority to regulate education policy or to withhold federal tax dollars.
"I think they would have to explain to parents how they don't get their own tax dollars back to their kids because we don't comply with an unfounded and unconstitutional mandate," said Farnsworth, R-Gilbert.
House Minority Leader John Loredo is an unlikely ally of Farnsworth on the issue, but more willing to criticize Bush. Loredo, D-Phoenix, says Arizona should call the feds' bluff about withholding funds from states not on board with the act.
"If President Bush is foolish enough to cut hundreds of millions of dollars to states around the country, then I think the first thing President John Kerry will do is repeal No Child Left Behind," Loredo said. "The president is in an impossible position. He either has to make it less punitive or he's in trouble."
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