Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, June 16, 2011

900 school boards and counting want to opt out of No Child Left Behind | The Washington Independent

900 school boards and counting want to opt out of No Child Left Behind | The Washington Independent
(Flickr Creative Commons/Editor B)

900 school boards and counting want to opt out of No Child Left Behind

By Mikhail Zinshteyn | 06.15.11 | 6:04 pm

A school board in Virginia has voted unanimously to leave No Child Left Behind, which would mean joining a bevy of other boards across the country in sending a resolution to Sec. of Education Arne Duncan asking for the request.

The petition is a joint effort by The American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association to “urge—absent Congressional reauthorization—immediate regulatory relief for the 2011-12 school year, and any efforts to rescind or modify current regulations and alleviate undue pressure on the nation’s schools.”

The letter continues:

We urge the Department of Education to exercise their regulatory authority to relieveschool districts from the constraints of current statutes, keeping schools from being held hostage while Congress moves forward with complete reauthorization. We request that this relief be straight regulatory relief, not waivers. Schools deserve straight regulatory relief, and not the additional requirements or conditions that often come with waivers. We specifically support suspension of additional sanctions under current AYP requirements, effective for the 2011-12 school year. (Schools currently facing sanctions