An out for 'No Child' law?

WASHINGTON — A pending House bill would allow Utah — or any other state — to opt out of the requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and instead use federal money to satisfy education needs, according to the bill's sponsors.

Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop, both R-Utah, are strong supporters of the bill, saying it makes schools more accountable on the local level instead of to Washington.

But the National Education Association says the bill introduced last week by Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., does nothing to help solve the real problems of the No Child Left Behind Act and might actually end up hurting those children — namely minorities or those in special education — that the law was designed to protect.

"No Child Left Behind has created more testing, more paperwork and has cost schools more money to comply with federal mandates," Hoekstra said when he introduced the bill. "We will soon have federal government schools should we continue to follow the current trajectory of adding more tests in more subjects such as science, geography, history, economics, government, civics and physical education with new federal mandates and penalties."

The bill, titled the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act of 2007 or A-PLUS, would allow all states to provide the secretary of education with a "declaration of intent" to assume full responsibility for the education of their students. "They would continue to receive federal support, but they would be free to advance their own policies," according to Hoekstra's office.

Participating states would then be able to combine federal and state education money into one stream and the state could use "federal funds on state-driven initiatives to advance its educational priorities," according to Hoekstra's office.

Bishop said the schools have to come up with an accountability plan but one that is accountable to parents and local taxpayers — "not some bureaucrat back here."

Cannon said under the current law, many Utah schools "fail" because of the way the law calculates statistics. If the proposed bill became law, the state could follow a better way to calculate progress that is more suited to Utah schools versus a national benchmark.

Bishop, a former high school teacher who sits on the House Education and Labor Committee, said the bill already has 52 co-sponsors and Hoekstra hasn't even "hit up" Democrats yet.

"This legislation actually has some possibility," Bishop said.