The Nation’s Children Love Barak, that’s not the NCLB we are going to talk about changing.
With the changes in the Executive Branch, NCLB will change, but how? The Eduguru is starting a series of blogs on the problems opponents have had with NCLB and what they might or should do about them now.
The first is the easy one: Underfunded.
Congress will need to find that extra funding someplace among the bailouts. The dollars don’t appear to be available from a windfall profits tax on big oil with gasoline below $2 a gallon again. The reality is that Congress typically funds their own projects at a level lower than is authorized in the enabling legislation, so NCLB is not that unusual.
Understanding what is meant by NCLB being underfunded is tough. Just saying more money for schools in need of improvement is too vague. Title I has been funding them for decades—and the amount of unspent Title I dollars each year raises the question of the ability of those schools to wisely use even more money. With the complaints about the What Works Clearinghouse, where will the new administration find worthy programs on which to spend millions of dollars?
The dollars appropriated for parents to find alternative tutoring and services for their children have been largely unspent—partly because schools discourage parents from seeking external help, and partly because the districts and states haven’t identified and publicized the alternatives as well as they could have.
Let’s assume Congress provides more dollars for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, aka Improving America’s Schools Act, aka the No Child Left Behind Act. How will they be allocated to states, and what restrictions will accompany them?
The EduGuru speaks: Education wasn’t much of an issue during the election. Looks like GM/Ford/Chrysler, mortgage lenders, and another round of stimulus checks will get the first money. Low-performing schools don’t cost us money—directly. They don’t depress the economy—directly. They don’t reduce our savings—directly. So, Congress will likely not get to them directly—as they say in the South.
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