Friday, April 08, 2005
Spellings Takes Op-Ed Piece on the Road
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings met state education officials yesterday at George Washington's estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia where she said the federal gov't would be more "flexible" in its application of the No Child Left Behind law as long as states "follow the principles" of the law. She warned that states who do not follow the principles of the law would be "disappointed."
Link
Disappointed? How? You mean maybe you won't fund the law? You mean maybe you'll declare more schools "failing"?
Please. Only 15 state superintendents and 10 deputies showed up to hear Ms. Spellings essentially reiterate the talking points from her op-ed piece in last Saturday's Washington Post. You know the points I mean: NCLB I was great, the sequel's even better (hello, high schools!), and those who don't like the law are against accountability and student achievement.
Ms. Spellings did not address the main concern of the states, which is to say the money. The state of Connecticut, for instance, which is planning to sue the federal government for forcing the states to pay for unfunded federal education mandates, wasn't assuaged by the Spellings pep talk (or the bone Spellings threw the states to allow schools to separately test 2% of learning disabled students rather than the currently mandated 1%).
"This supposed initiative offers less than meets the eye," said Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Attorney General. "Nothing in all of today's verbiage corrects the key legal lapse; by the law's clear terms, no mandate means no mandate, if it's unfunded. Our determination to sue continues."
Indeedy. The Bush Administration often forces the states to pick up much of the tab for federal programs, including EPA mandates on arsenic in drinking water and Medicaid. The Bush Administration often talks a good game when they're proposing initiatives, like Global AIDS Relief, too, but they're never around when the check arrives for those things either. And of course the Bush Administration made the municipality of Washington D.C. pick up much of the security tab for the Inauguration, cities across the nation pick up much of the security tabs for Bush/Cheney '04 campaign stops, and taxpayers everywhere are stuck with the tab for Bush's 60 day Social Security "Phase-Out Follies" (currently estimated at $2 million dollars and counting).
No, this adminstration (and it's "responsibility president") will not take responsibility for their programs or their mandates, but they're always up for making tax cuts permanent or arranging for unregulated reconstruction funds for Iraq.
But it's critics of No Child Left Behind who are against accountability, right?
Link
Disappointed? How? You mean maybe you won't fund the law? You mean maybe you'll declare more schools "failing"?
Please. Only 15 state superintendents and 10 deputies showed up to hear Ms. Spellings essentially reiterate the talking points from her op-ed piece in last Saturday's Washington Post. You know the points I mean: NCLB I was great, the sequel's even better (hello, high schools!), and those who don't like the law are against accountability and student achievement.
Ms. Spellings did not address the main concern of the states, which is to say the money. The state of Connecticut, for instance, which is planning to sue the federal government for forcing the states to pay for unfunded federal education mandates, wasn't assuaged by the Spellings pep talk (or the bone Spellings threw the states to allow schools to separately test 2% of learning disabled students rather than the currently mandated 1%).
"This supposed initiative offers less than meets the eye," said Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Attorney General. "Nothing in all of today's verbiage corrects the key legal lapse; by the law's clear terms, no mandate means no mandate, if it's unfunded. Our determination to sue continues."
Indeedy. The Bush Administration often forces the states to pick up much of the tab for federal programs, including EPA mandates on arsenic in drinking water and Medicaid. The Bush Administration often talks a good game when they're proposing initiatives, like Global AIDS Relief, too, but they're never around when the check arrives for those things either. And of course the Bush Administration made the municipality of Washington D.C. pick up much of the security tab for the Inauguration, cities across the nation pick up much of the security tabs for Bush/Cheney '04 campaign stops, and taxpayers everywhere are stuck with the tab for Bush's 60 day Social Security "Phase-Out Follies" (currently estimated at $2 million dollars and counting).
No, this adminstration (and it's "responsibility president") will not take responsibility for their programs or their mandates, but they're always up for making tax cuts permanent or arranging for unregulated reconstruction funds for Iraq.
But it's critics of No Child Left Behind who are against accountability, right?
