| Federal Update 09.08.05 |
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FEDERAL UPDATE Week of September 8, 2005 Subscribe to the Federal Update or any of several other NASBE free e-mail updates on education related issues by visiting www.nasbe.org/E_Mail.html. EDUCATION LEADERS MOVE QUICKLY TO HELP STUDENTS DISPLACED BY HURRICANE Federal and state officials moved quickly and comprehensively this week to enroll in school as quickly and smoothly as possible students affected by Hurricane Katrina. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced the creation of a new web page, Hurricane Help for Schools, on the U.S. Department of Education web site to serve as a central clearinghouse for hurricane-related assistance and information to schools. The address is www.ed.gov/katrina. In addition, the Secretary has convened a task force of national education leaders—both K-12 and higher ed, and including NASBE exec Brenda Welburn—to help coordinate assistance and deploy resources. Spellings is also monitoring the particular school needs of the hardest hit areas, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as those states such as Texas that have taken in a significant number of displaced students and has vowed to do “everything in our power to assist where appropriate and where needed to enroll every child in school with the necessary resources to ensure a high-quality education.” Although the Secretary will address state needs on an individual basis, she has already issued a letter to state superintendents outlining flexibility options, including the consideration of waivers of No Child Left Behind Act requirements such as maintenance of effort provisions, highly qualified teacher requirements, and the use or shift of federal education funds for relief efforts. Assistant K-12 Secretary Henry Johnson, the former chief state school officer in Mississippi, is overseeing many of the Department’s assistance efforts in the gulf coast states. State education leaders are also working to accommodate the influx of students into their schools. Perhaps Alabama State Superintendent Joe Morton’s memo to districts in his state best captured the compassionate and can-do spirit of education officials in this regard: “I urge each of you to work with your principals and do everything possible to welcome these evacuees to your schools should they come to enroll. I am waiving usual and customary requirements for students who transfer into Alabama’s public schools from other states, systems within the state, or home schooled/private school students in or from outside Alabama due to circumstances caused by Hurricane Katrina. Many of the people escaped with literally the clothes on their backs and have no humanly way possible to produce birth certificates, immunization records, school records, information for qualifying for the Child Nutrition Program, etc. Additionally, you may be approached by displaced teachers and other school employees seeking employment. Again, we can work out details in the weeks and months ahead. Now is the time to come to the aid of our neighbors.” The impact of the natural disaster on the gulf states is staggering. More than 200,000 students in Louisiana and Mississippi cannot attend their neighborhood school because it is destroyed, extensively damaged, or their home is damaged or uninhabitable. Louisiana officials are now predicting that New Orleans’ area schools may be able to open next school year. Countless student records have been destroyed. And with the focus, deservedly so, on the students that have endured so much trauma, less attention has been paid to the thousands of displaced teachers of those students. States are working on reciprocal certification so these teachers can be hired, but questions remain about salaries, housing, pensions, etc. The incredible magnitude of the catastrophe ensures that the plight and recovery of its victims could take years. CONNECTICUT SUES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OVER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education, charging that the No Child Left Behind Act is an unfunded mandate on states. The suit asserts that the federal government has failed to provide adequate funding to states to meet the education reform law’s assessment and accountability requirements and that this underfunding violates both the statute’s own dictates and the U.S. constitution. Secretary Spellings decried Connecticut’s lawsuit as a “red herring” and suggested that the state is trying to avoid accountability for student achievement. “What are they afraid of knowing, I guess, is one of the things I'd like to know,” said Spellings. Connecticut education leaders have been seeking relief for some time from NCLB’s annual testing requirements and to maintain the state’s rigorous, but every other year (4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th grades) testing regimen. The state contends that adding the new tests will be expensive and that the cost will force them to scale back their existing tests. Toward that end, the state conducted a study of NCLB’s costs in March which found that Connecticut will have to spend $41.6 million of its own money above and beyond federal grants to meet NCLB requirements through FY08. The study identified two areas that accounted for more than 50% of the funding shortfall: testing (adding reading and math tests for grades 3,5, and 7, and grades 5 and 8 for science) and technical assistance to low-performing schools and districts. The Connecticut argument relies on a key provision within the law, Section 9527 which states, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school’s curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act.” Blumenthal summarized his case and the provision as such, “Three words for federal officials: Read the law. Under the law, the federal government must pay any additional testing. They have not done so.” The same statutory language is the cornerstone of another legal challenge to NCLB launched this past spring by a coalition of local districts and an NEA affiliate. The U.S. Department of Education has sought to have that suit dismissed by challenging the local districts’ standing to bring the suit and to show harm caused by NCLB, while also rebutting the substantive suit’s substantive claims. Because of Connecticut’s status as a sovereign state (rather than as a local district, which is not a constitutional actor nor have direct contact with the federal government) and the education agency’s unsuccessful pursuit of administrative remedies, legal experts believe that Connecticut’s case has more chance of success than the district challenge. SUSAN SCLAFANI RESIGNS FROM VOC-ED POST Susan Sclafani, the assistant secretary for vocational and adult education, tendered her resignation in August and her last day was September 6th. Sclafani served as chief of staff to Rod Paige during his time as Houston school’s superintendent and came to Washington as a top aide in the Department when Paige was appointed Education Secretary. She moved over to lead the vocational/adult education department during the formulation of the Administration’s voc-ed’s reauthorization proposal. Beto Gonzalez, the recently appointed voc-ed deputy secretary, will serve as acting assistant secretary until a Sclafani successor is appointed. QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We need accountability. Our children deserve it, but we in Connecticut do a lot of testing already, far more than most other states. Our taxpayers are sagging under the crushing costs of local education. What we don’t need is a new laundry list of things to do – with no new money to do them.” Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, in support of Connecticut’s existing testing system.
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