New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | May 6, 2005

Cato's Marie "the Gryph" Gryphon reports on Utah's decision to leave behind No Child Left Behind.

Comments

|5.6.05 @ 5:48PM|#

This goes against everything I've ever learned about politics. Well done, Utah.

|5.7.05 @ 12:41PM|#

"For example, too many special education students must take exams inappropriate to their needs."

Here in Illinois (and I believe in Utah, but I'm not sure) Schools were (prior to NCLB) often gradded on the results of the SAT that the kids would take on the HS level. But...Illinois allowed a reporting exception...for special education.

The High School in my district, was using this exception to put above average IQ students in special education if it appeared that they would not do well on these tests. That way, the district cleared itself of any real obligation to teach. One local kid who had an IQ of 125 and had been reading at the college level (according to tests) since the 6th grade was given such complex problems as adding the words Room + Mate. (This particular child apparently came to be in special ed after he asked certain question concerning how the curved universe affects basic geometry, his teacher didn't know). The school in my district was formally award winning. Now that all stats are known, it is failing.

Maybe Utah is honest about this. Or maybe this is just a way to continue to abuse children in the name of the state? I don't know. But be real careful when you believe a public administrator acts this way. I think NCLB is incredibly silly. But I suspect that Utah's real reason to opt out, is to avoid that tricky problem of respect for ones students. Ho hum.

Larry A|5.7.05 @ 5:58PM|#

It would be a really interesting exercise to add up all the federal funding for a state, then subtract the cost of compliance to federal regulations tied to the funding, including all the "pass his law or we'll take away funding" situations.

My guess is that the balance would be so far in the red you couldn't see the break-even point.

|5.8.05 @ 3:22AM|#

mull this over

the correlation to IQ scores is ...
retesting ~1 year later ... 0.85 - 0.95
a different IQ test ... 0.7 - 0.8
a verbal or quantitative SAT or ACT score ... 0.6 - 0.8
high school GPA ... 0.4 - 0.6

now ask yourself: what does NCLB testing measure? are its goals reasonable?

|5.9.05 @ 12:07AM|#

...Spellings sternly warns that Utah risks losing up to $76 million in federal funds...

One thing that seems to get left out of these federal funding stories is the fact that the Federal Government, is just giving the state BACK tax money it's citizens have already paid.

Isn't that one of the LP's big compaints about most federal agencies but especially the Department of Education? That a large percentage of federal education funding just supports an bureacracy to hand that money BACK to the states?

If I was a Utah governor and I wanted to shut up an arrogant cabinet secretary, I'd be bitching about the Bush administration trying to bully and cheat my state's citizens out of their hard-earned money.

|5.9.05 @ 10:01AM|#

I suspect many Mormons are now regretting the decision to close the LDS academies in the 20s in favor of supporting Public Schools. But in those days they thought that the Church would control State government forever.

You'd think an infallible prophet would have seen this coming.

Neil Block|5.9.05 @ 11:08AM|#

This is a bold and excellently postured move by the legislature of Utah... I would certainly hope more states would stand up for their rights in governing the business of the individual states, as laid out by the oft-ignored Constitution.

Unfortunately, the motive behind many of these state-fed standoffs is different than a simply Constitutional issue -- specifically in the lawsuit recently filed by the NEA and several states/districts against NCLB. The suit cites a paragraph in the act that requires the federal government to cover the costs of implementing the Act, and is in effect asking for MORE federal funding, not less federal control, as it would seem on the surface.

While some states are approaching the fight from the correct angle (less federal control over a state issue), many legislators are working towards the agenda of forcing the federal government to call their states' bluffs and appropriate even more funding to the states to "cover" the costs of NCLB.

Of course, a free market in education would preclude all of these silly political issues from ever occurring.