Sunset for NCLB?

At a lecture at the Heritage Foundation on January 8, 2006, Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jim DeMint (R-SC) spoke about the need to reform No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The title of the lecture was A Better Answer for Education: Reviving State and Local Policymaking Authority. The lecture marked the fifth year anniversary of the signing of NCLB. Both Senators spoke about the need to change the policies behind NCLB to allow for more state and local control of the school systems without federal government involvement. The Heritage Foundation also provided a report at the lecture about background information on the extent to which NCLB has failed. According to the report, the 1,100-page No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has cost over $22 billion and provided minimal if any positive results. In addition, bureaucratic red-tape has prevented many students from even receiving any possible benefits from NCLB.

Michael Franc, Vice President of Government Relations for Heritage, told the audience before the lecture that the final draft of NCLB was vastly different from what was originally proposed, with the problem being that Congressional liberals got rid of choice options to send kids to private or religious schools. According to the Heritage report, what began as a 31-page blueprint for reforming the American education system by the Bush administration that would have reduced federal bureaucracy and increased flexibility to the states, became a 1,100-page bill with a bloated budget and a failing record of accomplishments.

As Congress prepares to re-up NCLB, the two Senators proposed cutting down bureaucratic red tape to move the decision-making process in education from Washington to the local level.

Sen. Cornyn quoted former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who said that although “the federal contribution to education in Florida is small, only about 7% of total spending, it takes more than 40% of the state’s education staff to oversee and administer federal dollars.” According to Sen. Cornyn, while the federal government has put in more than 25% additional money into education in the last five years, the quality of education has gone down. Sen. Cornyn believes that NCLB is too concerned with the input of money, when the program should be concerned with output, or the education the students are receiving.

Sen. DeMint commented that the decline of the U.S. education system began with federal government involvement, and that U.S. colleges now have to dumb down their programs to compensate for the low quality of incoming students. According to Sen. DeMint, America’s capabilities are dependent on our students as the future of our country, but our schools have been failing for decades. Sen. DeMint believes that America can not afford for the U.S. Education system to fail another generation of students.

Neither senator advocated abolishing NCLB, and instead wanted states to have the option of using NCLB but with the flexibility to fit the standards set up by NCLB to their locale. In fact, Sen. DeMint actually praised NCLB in a backhanded way by saying that because it was so bad, it will help to bring about necessary change and reform in K-12 education in the U.S.

Both senators see the problem as the federal government trying to create a one-size-fits-all education system for the whole country. But, each state is different, each area within that state is different, and each school in that area is different. Trying to create a one-size-fits-all system creates a system that fits none.