Connecticut to
challenge No Child Left Behind education
law
By NOREEN GILLESPIE • Associated Press
Writer • April 6, 2005, 1:40 AM EDT
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut is on the verge of
becoming the first state in the country to challenge
President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law in
court, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said
Tuesday.
Blumenthal said a lawsuit is being prepared that would
contend the law illegally and unconstitutionally requires
states and communities to spend millions of dollars more
than the federal government provides for test development
and school reform programs.
"This law is outrageously wrong. It's bad education policy,
but it's also blatantly illegal," Blumenthal said.
While other states have questioned the law and asked the
federal government and Congress to make changes, they have
not gone to court. Blumenthal said he believes other states
will join his lawsuit.
Signed in 2002, the federal law's aim is to have all
students in public schools proficient in reading and math by
2014. But it comes with a price.
Test development is expected to cost the state $8 million
more than the $23 million the federal government has already
doled out. A recent analysis by Connecticut education
officials found that the state will have to spend $41.6
million in state money for staff, program and development
costs to meet the law's mandates through 2008. Hundreds of
millions more in costs are expected to be picked up by local
districts.
The lawsuit comes after the U.S. Department of Education
recently refused a request from Connecticut to waive a
requirement to expand testing to grades three, five and
seven. Connecticut already tests students in grades four,
six, eight and 10.
"We've exhausted all other remedies," Blumenthal said.
Connecticut's education commissioner, Betty Sternberg,
opposes the way the law has been implemented. She has said
more testing will not give educators more information about
student performance, and disagrees with the way special
education students and students with limited English skills
are tested.
"I don't think it's in the best interest to be testing them
more. I think it will take away from our primary goal, which
is to raise all students' achievement," Sternberg said. "I
don't know of any research that shows more testing results
in higher achievement."
The U.S. Department of Education criticized Connecticut's
looming lawsuit, pointing to large achievement gaps between
the state's minority and white students as a reason
Connecticut schools should be held accountable.
"The basis for the state's lawsuit appears to rest on a
flawed cost study of the No Child Left Behind Act that
creates inflated projections built upon questionable
estimates and misallocation of costs," the statement
said.
The lawsuit drew a lukewarm response from Republican Gov. M.
Jodi Rell, who wrote a letter last month asking the federal
government to reconsider the state's request for
flexibility.
Rell said Tuesday that she wondered if the money it would
cost to pursue the lawsuit would be better spent in the
classroom. She also questioned Connecticut being the only
plaintiff in the case, so far.
"But to do this on our own, I'm not sure about it," she
said.
The National Education Association, the nation's largest
teachers' union, announced plans in 2003 to rally states and
file a national lawsuit, though it was never filed. NEA
President Reg Weaver said it should be filed by the end of
April.
The union has not said who the plaintiffs will be, though
union officials met with Blumenthal last week, state
officials said. The teachers' union is also speaking with
officials in Texas and Vermont, but those states have not
committed to joining the lawsuit, Weaver said.
"What is happening in Connecticut is also happening in many,
many states across the country," he said.
Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo in New London and Ben
Feller in Washington contributed to this report.
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