Spellings says No Child law is ‘getting results’

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings yesterday said America has reached a “tipping point” on education and must decide whether to keep the No Child Left Behind law’s accountability for public schools, which she said has forced “an honest look at our schools.”

Her comments come as administration leaders are trying to improve and solidify the much-debated 2002 law this year before President Bush’s term ends.

As Mr. Bush did earlier this week, Mrs. Spellings defended the law and urged Congress to renew it soon, with some changes. But, she said if Congress fails to act, “I will move forward” and try to improve it through pilot programs and other administrative tools at her disposal. She noted the new president probably won’t focus immediately on NCLB.

“Agree or disagree with this law, without NCLB, we wouldn’t even be talking about how to get every student on grade level,” she said. “After decades of doling out federal dollars and hoping for the best we’re now expecting and getting results.”

The law requires states to test and track students in reading and math, bring them to grade level proficiency by 2014 and hold schools accountable if they lag behind.

But funding is one of the fiercest sticking points over the law, which already faces an uphill battle to renewal in Congress this year, as presidential election-year politics complicate its already-complex dynamics.

Critics, including the Democrats who helped Mr. Bush create the law, have complained NCLB is vastly underfunded and is too rigid and too punitive on struggling schools.

Mrs. Spellings said the administration insists on keeping the law’s main provisions but will support changes such as more flexibility for educators in how they improve struggling schools and chart student progress.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, who unsuccessfully pushed a proposal to improve NCLB last year and remains committed to that effort, had harsh words yesterday. “It is baffling that the Bush administration’s sudden sense of urgency to change the law is coming on the heels of our committee’s efforts to significantly improve No Child Left Behind,” the California Democrat said.

He said Mr. Bush didn’t participate in meaningful negotiations over the past year and vetoed a Democrat-proposed education funding boost. Mr. Bush’s upcoming budget is his “one last chance to demonstrate a real commitment to strengthening schools by providing a long-overdue education funding increase,” Mr. Miller said.

The NCLB funding battle also is raging in the courts. The National Education Association (NEA) and several school districts sued the government, claiming NCLB didn’t make it clear to states that they’d have to use their own money to carry out the law’s requirements if there was a shortfall, said NEA lawyer Bob Chanin. The case initially was dismissed but a federal appeals court this week reversed the dismissal and revived the case.

Mrs. Spellings yesterday said she’s confident the case will “ultimately be resolved in our favor,” and that administration officials are considering their legal options.