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March 16, 2007

Morning Shots

Baltimore Sun: No Child Left Behind law faces change

President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind education law is headed for fundamental changes this year, including a likely softening of do-or-die deadlines.

School administrators long have complained about the annual deadlines, which punish schools that do not make enough progress toward having all children perform at their grade levels.

School officials also have rebelled at requirements that students with limited English or with learning disabilities perform as well as their grade-level peers.

Now, those issues are being taken up by congressional lawmakers across the political spectrum.

Beckley (West Virginia) Register-Herald: AFT: 6% is affordable; strike not certain

No decision on a potential strike likely is coming for two weeks, but for now, the American Federation of Teachers in West Virginia says its holdout for a 6 percent salary hike isn’t out of line with the state’s finances.

To get there, however, with the 60-day gathering finished, AFT state president Judy Hale says a special legislative session would be needed.

And when it comes to affordability, the AFT leader is insistent that West Virginia can afford to extend an across-the-board pay increase of 6 percent, given its recent history of huge surpluses when all budget needs were satisfied.

“They had record surpluses the last couple of years,” Hale said Thursday. “And the five-year forecast looks pretty good.”

Washington Post: GOP Bills Would Relax Test Requirements of 'No Child' Law

Republican critics of the No Child Left Behind law flexed their growing muscle yesterday as 57 GOP lawmakers, including the national party chairman, endorsed legislation that would undermine President Bush's signature education initiative.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who voted for the law in 2001, said he now opposes it because it has shifted control of public schools to the federal government in a more dramatic way than he ever imagined.

"The overwhelming intrusion of No Child Left Behind is too large to deal with unless you fundamentally change the legislation," Blunt said about the introduction of bills yesterday in the House and Senate. The bills would allow states to receive federal education aid even if they opt out of requirements to test all students in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.

LA Times: No quick, cheap fix for state's schools

California's immense public school system is plagued by gross inefficiencies and inequalities that will require fundamental reforms and much more money, according to a series of studies released this week.

Suggested reforms included making it easier to fire bad teachers, providing massive infusions of resources to schools that serve the poor, delivering more accurate student data and eliminating excessive paperwork and conflicting rules and directives.

More than a year in the making, the 22 independent reports taken together paint a picture of an education system beyond tinkering, in need of major overhaul. While changes must include a huge, but unspecified, infusion of money, any increase in funding would be squandered without a total rethinking of how education dollars are spent, the authors concluded.

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