Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

No Child Left Behind questioned

Democrats argue Nevada should opt out of federal law

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, on Monday in Carson City criticizes the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Photo by CATHLEEN ALLISON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY -- Top Nevada Assembly Democrats are joining politicians in other states that have challenged, and in some cases openly revolted against, the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The Assembly leaders said Monday the state should opt out of portions of the sweeping education reform bill because it's redundant, confusing and unfunded.

"I think No Child Left Behind is a cookie-cutter bill put together by bureaucrats in Washington," said Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson. "We know better how to improve education in Nevada."

Perkins and other members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee have introduced a bill, modeled after legislation recently passed in Utah, that gives Nevada's education standards priority over the federal requirements and lets schools opt out of any No Child Left Behind provision that isn't fully funded by the federal government.

More than a dozen states have recently debated bucking the 2001 bill that mandated frequent testing and set strict, uniform achievement standards for schools. In Colorado, a bill allowing districts to ignore parts of the bill and turn down the federal funding that comes with them became law without a Republican governor's signature.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman recently signed a measure defying the federal act despite a warning from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings that it could cost the state millions of dollars in federal aid.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the committee's proposal is based on the Utah bill. Giunchigliani, a former teacher, said the federal bill only duplicated and interfered with an education reform bill passed by state lawmakers in 1997. That bill required less frequent testing and less rigid remediation plans for schools that failed to meet standards.

"Now you always have two different processes, two different standards," she said. "It just gets very confusing."

Federal officials have said that states that don't comply with the bill could lose federal funding. That would largely affect low-income schools, who get the bulk of federal dollars.

Nevada received $112.5 million in support of No Child Left Behind programs, about 9 percent of the state education budget. When local revenue is added, the No Child Left Behind money drops to about 6 percent of schools' revenue, according to state education officials.

State Schools Superintendent Keith Rheault said he wouldn't advocate withdrawal from the federal program but does support a section of Assembly Bill 562, which requires districts to take stock of how much the No Child Left Behind Act costs schools.

Rheault said the federal funding attached to remediation programs, busing and testing doesn't pay for related staff, supplies and administration of the programs. Although federal officials have said the money could be used for those things, Rheault said it doesn't do it all.