No Child Left Behind will force children in the Pine Tree State to be left behind.
U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said he intends to carry out Congress’ intentions under federal No Child Left Behind rules and would be “very reluctant to grant exemptions.”
He may be reluctant.
He is definitely being unreasonable.
Federal rules permit exemptions and Maine has a valid case to win such favor.
We join Maine legislators’ call on Congress to issue a waiver of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act for Maine’s public schools.
Maine has, by all accounts, much stricter academic standards already in place. If we are forced to conform to federal rules we may be forced to lower those standards. Paige’s unwillingness to listen to reason and his reluctance to consider a federal waiver clashes with the Bush administration’s mandate to boost achievement.
The full implementation of Maine’s Learning Results is nearly complete and the painstaking process to set and achieve aggressive academic standards has resulted in consistently high student performance rankings when compared to other states. The obvious conclusion is that Learning Results work. Dismantling those standards to conform to federal rules will erase years of success and diminish the quality of our public schools.
It is unreasonable for the federal government – which has stepped beyond its authority to set educational standards anyway – to squeeze students in one standard national measure and punish schools for failure to comply. When it comes to education, states are best able to determine resources and needs and find solutions to level these demands.
Maine has done that and done it well.
In 1999, Maine ranked first in the nation in overall student performance and was named the best state in which to raise a child.
In 2001, Maine ranked first in high school completion rates and regularly gets high marks on standardized achievement tests.
The worry that Maine may be forced to lower its standards is not unfounded. The Department of Education recently slashed essential tests from the Maine Educational Assessment so teachers could focus more attention on meeting lesser federal standards. Sacrificing standards under a threat we could lose federal funding is a disservice to students and to taxpayers who demand quality schools.
Maine lawmakers are right to make a formal request of the Bush administration to excuse it from No Child Left Behind, not because we don’t want to do the work, but because it’s already done better than anywhere else.
We urge Sens. Snowe and Collins and Reps. Michaud and Allen to join in this request to preserve our standards and erase the heavy-handed threat of reduced Title I funding.
The well-researched and implemented Learning Results were adopted prior to federal rule and must take precedence over No Child Left Behind. But, if the federal government insists on lowering standards, it must then also be willing to fully fund this mistaken mandate.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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