'No Child Left Behind' Reforms May Get Left Behind
Politics and budget cuts endanger President Obama’s education reforms
Liberty County School District in Florida is running out of time. The district’s $9 million budget has been axed by more than a third since the 2007-08 school year, as federal stimulus money dried up and a tourism dip hurt tax revenue. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, all three schools in the 1,300-student district are labeled as failing and could lose federal funding unless every student passes standardized math and reading tests by 2014. Superintendent Sue Summers says she has no more slack. “If they cut $100,000 from my budget, I’ll have to cut something big,” she says. “I won’t be able to open schools. I won’t be able to provide transportation, or I won’t be able to provide lunches.”
When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, he pledged to “fix” NCLB, the federal education act signed into law by George W. Bush in 2002 that aims to hold schools accountable for students’ academic performance. Congressional gridlock has halted his plans, leaving school districts across the nation in a state of uncertainty. At the same time, state budget cuts threaten to undermine districts’ efforts to carry out the rest of Obama’s education reforms. “These are blue times, sad times,” says Jack Jennings, a