If there’s one thing Utah government officials love to do, it’s reject free federal money. Lots of it. Millions. Mostly, on principle.
The Legislature’s decision to reject the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has now cost the state more than $1 billion (yes, billion). We’re now seeing the Utah Board of Education threaten to do something similar.
On Thursday the Board of Education voted to request a waiver from federal rules mandating that at least 95 percent of school children in grades three through eight participate in school testing. Because the state allows parents to opt their children out of testing, Utah’s rate of students who participate is under the federal minimum of 95 percent. Six percent of Utah students opt out of the annual tests, thus the need for the waiver.
The board’s vote to request the waiver only passed after a separate motion, to reject the federal guidelines altogether, failed in a 5-8 vote. Five members of the Utah Board of Education want Utah to reject federal guidelines altogether, along with the accompanying $1 million for administrative costs, and possibly up to $90 or $126 million, on the principle of local control.
Members in favor of skirting federal test guidelines believe the Utah Legislature would make up the difference in funding. That argument belies common sense in a state with one of the, if not the, worst per-student spending in the nation.
We’ve argued before that test scores aren’t the end-all in student success. But during a time when citizens of the state are so tired of the Legislature not spending enough money on education that they organize a petition initiative to tax themselves, board members should recognize it’s not the time to reject free federal money.
Principle is great, when it means something. The principle of federal control over state education doesn’t apply here, though. The federal government isn’t mandating what test the students should take. The federal government isn’t mandating anything that Utah, including its school board members, doesn’t already want to do – test students.
We’re sympathetic to the idea that there should be a better system to track student achievement than a test-centric one. And the board itself recognizes this, and has started developing a new results-based performance metric for schools. But some sort of testing will always be necessary. There is no reason not to take advantage of federal monies available for something Utah is already doing.
Board member Carol Lear said it best when she said, “I want to ask for the waiver, but I don’t see any need to poke the bear in the eye.”