Lawmakers get tough with feds

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 2, 2008 | by Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret Morning News

The Utah Legislature has been no fan of No Child Left Behind. And now, it could be in control of its money.

The House last week gave a final, albeit feeble, thumbs up -- by the minimum 38 votes -- to a bill that targets federal education programs that cost the state more than $100,000 to implement. The bill requires those programs to go through legislative or gubernatorial scrutiny first. In other words, officials other than education bosses would be in a position to say yes or no to educational programs, which could include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and career and technical education programs, money for English language learners, Native American children and even training for teachers, Deputy State Superintendent Larry Shumway said.

"All of these federal funds by their very nature use state resources," Shumway said.

"My understanding of the bill, as it passed, says the Legislature could reject federal funding. It's pretty far reaching," he said. "We'll be very interested in knowing which federal programs they'll approve."

The bill now goes to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for his signature or veto.

The Legislature twice has threatened to opt out of No Child Left Behind and passed a law requiring state school resources to pay for state goals first.

No Child Left Behind is Congress' 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a decades-old vehicle for states to receive federal education dollars, ramped up and renamed. Testing requirements for low-income schools receiving Title I money - - the bulk of No Child Left Behind's some $110 million coming to Utah now -- have long been part of the education act. No Child Left Behind wove tighter strings to the money and included all public schools in a new reporting system.

No Child Left Behind requires all children, regardless of race, disability, income or English language proficiency, to read and do math at levels each state deems acceptable by 2014. The idea is to shine a light on students who traditionally have been left behind, as evidenced in dropout rates and huge achievement gaps between ethnic minorities and Caucasian students.

Schools where one group of kids didn't make enough progress toward testing goals are publicly reported as not making "adequate yearly progress" -- a yardstick many call draconian and unfair.

The Utah Legislature has complained the law costs school districts millions of their own dollars to implement, is unfair and violates state rights to oversee public education. Leading the charge has been Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, sponsor of SB162.

SB162 would require expensive state education agreements with the U.S. Department of Education to first receive the green light from the Legislature or governor. If an agreement would cost Utah more than $100,000 a year, the contract would require the approval of the Governor's Office. Those exceeding $500,000 would require approval from legislative management, and those exceeding $1 million would require the OK from the Legislature. It also authorizes the governor or the Legislature to void federal education agreements lacking proper approval.

Dayton says the bill allows the state to weigh whether to enter federal education agreements whose costs outweigh benefits.

However, the State Office of Education has million-dollar contracts with private vendors, which receive no additional legislative scrutiny under the bill. Said Dayton: "We might need to expand into private."

"What has changed is the U.S. Department of Education is expanding their reach, expanding their control," Dayton said. "The effort in my legislation is to maintain state control of education."

NCLB likely is one of those $1 million programs that could receive a legislative cost-benefits analysis. So is IDEA. The federal government was supposed to cover at least 40 percent of IDEA's costs. Recent estimates have put that investment at 20 percent, maybe less.

Laws also require public schools to provide children with a free and appropriate public education.

Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper and the bill's House sponsor, says lawmakers would never jeopardize schools' dollars for needed programs.

"I've not heard one person say, 'give up money,"' Hughes said.

Still, some wonder about the risk posed to other programs under the bill.

"The federal Department of Education, I think, clearly understands what Utah's issue is with No Child Left Behind," said Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, and a special education teacher. "I'm concerned we're painting our concern with the costs of NCLB with this broad of a brush."

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com