April 1, 2008
By Geoff Michel and David Hann
It's time to issue a grade to the federal government's No Child Left Behind education experiment, and that mark is an unqualified "F." Six years of NCLB begs a fundamental question: Who do we want to run our schools?
Our response: Not a federal government that is 1,200 miles away from our classrooms. We need to recommit to local control of schools and empower parents, teachers and principals.
Minnesota Senate Republicans are calling for a decisive end to our state's participation in No Child Left Behind and have drafted legislation that would allow Minnesota to opt out of this federal mandate. There is growing bipartisan support for this measure in St. Paul.
No Child Left Behind was passed in Congress in 2001. There was bipartisan opposition from the start, including seven members of our eight-member Minnesota congressional delegation. Today, growing criticism of the law is also bipartisan. The law is supposed to be reauthorized this year, but it is deadlocked in controversy in the Congress due to objections by members of both political parties.
Twenty-three other states have considered opting out. While none have totally pulled out yet, every state has sought waivers and 29 have called for full federal funding of the mandate. Some states have also taken stronger steps with proposals prohibiting expenditures of state funds to comply, or complying only in areas fully funded by the federal government.
The federal government should support the states' education efforts. Period. Our plan would reassert local control of Minnesota schools and reject this federal intrusion because it hampers local decision-making, burdens Minnesota teachers, and prevents our kids from excelling in what is fast becoming a global workplace.
Arguably the worst result of NCLB has been the growth of a mindset of "teaching to the test" that has developed in our schools. In addition, we have dropped the bar for our most gifted and talented students, who are easy to ignore when schools are focused on getting each group of kids to clear the mandatory federal hurdle.
Please don't get us wrong: Measuring progress, setting standards, and testing are critical. But we can do all that here in Minnesota. Indeed, our state already had statewide testing and reporting in core academic subjects before NCLB, and we had schools that led the nation in pre-college tests such as the ACT.
One of the criticisms of our proposals is the potential loss of federal funds (an estimated $150 million annually). Frankly, it is difficult to imagine Congress cutting funding for schools under any circumstances. In any event, our bill would ask the feds to repackage these funds in the form of a block grant. This grant could be used to cover a decades-long shortfall in federal special education funding or for other programs such as early childhood education, tutoring or scholarships for struggling students.
Our neighborhood schools are not a branch of the federal government. Ninety-five percent of the education dollars spent in Minnesota comes from state and local sources. Why should we turn our schools over to federal bureaucrats who are only contributing five percent of the funding?
A 21st century education demands more personal attention and flexibility from teachers and principals, not a sprawling and impersonal federal bureaucracy. The time has come to send a strong message to Washington D.C.: We want to take back Minnesota schools.
Senators Geoff Michel, R-Edina, and David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, represent Senate Districts 41 and 42, respectively