Utah's superintendent of public instruction won't let the state's congressional delegation forget that she - and other Utah educators as well as legislators - are not happy with the underfunded dictates of the federal law and believe states can and should handle the nuts and bolts of education for their own students.
She has asked that U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, who shares her frustration with NCLB, propose changes in the law, including a revision of the federal role to one of only "research and dissemination," returning control of all other aspects of education to the states.
She's not likely to get much traction with the Bush administration on that, never mind that her idea for reform is essentially correct. But another of her ideas has merit and deserves to be promoted as the act comes up for reauthorization this year. She would amend the Title VIII Impact Aid Act to provide more federal funding to rural counties where public lands that produce no property tax revenue for schools comprise at least 50 percent of the total land area. That could help those districts pay for bringing every child up to grade level in basic subjects by 2014, the goal of NCLB.
The Title VIII law applies to school districts where federal facilities such as military bases reduce the tax revenue available to schools. Nine school districts in Utah now qualify for impact aid; under Harrington's proposal, 26 school districts in Utah and in other Western states would also receive funding.
The amendment makes sense because the testing, reporting, assessment and teacher quality standards NCLB imposes are largely unfunded and hit rural school districts especially hard. These isolated schools already face teacher shortages, and sending teachers off for further education or replacing those not deemed by NCLB as "highly qualified" strain budgets already stretched thin.
No Child Left Behind should be made more flexible and more fully funded. Harrington's amendment deserves a hearing. If Congress passes it, so much the better. If not, it would at least serve to highlight the burden NCLB puts on rural school districts throughout the West.
