Statement on the Second Anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act
by U.S. Representative Tom Allen

Washington, D.C.-U.S. Representative Tom Allen made the following statement on the second anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act:
Two years ago, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed with strong bipartisan support amid great fanfare and hope. It represented a grand bargain. States agreed to implement performance standards to measure annual progress toward learning proficiency goals in math, reading and other subjects. In return, the federal government pledged an infusion of financial assistance.

Today, that bargain is a broken promise. And NCLB is mired in complexity, discredited by inflexible and controversial decisions from the federal Department of Education (ED), woefully underfunded and subject to widespread disillusionment from parents, educators and state and local officials nationwide.

Of especial concern to Maine is the ED's insistence upon forcing its questionable performance testing and assessment procedures on Maine's schools. Since the mid-1980s, Maine has worked hard to devise and implement an enlightened, accurate system for assessing the progress of students and schools.

Due in large measure to the success of this effort, Maine consistently ranks among the highest in math and reading scores on the well-respected National Assessment of Educational Progress test. Forbes magazine recently identified Maine as the state getting the 'biggest bang for its education bucks.' Yet the ED has stubbornly maintained that Maine must conform to its 'one-size-fits-all' assessment process, forcing the state to lower our standards or face sanctions and funding cuts.

While imposing dozens of new mandates on our schools, the Bush Administration has failed to honor fully its commitment of financial aid. Less than a month after signing the law, President Bush submitted a budget that provided $7.2 billion less for NCLB than the new law promised. This past fall, the House passed an Education Department appropriations bill, backed by the Republican leadership and the White House, which contained $8 billion less than was promised in NCLB. For Maine, that means $37.5 million less to spend on teacher training, aid to schools with heavy concentrations of military or low income students, technology, and other programs to help schools reach NCLB targets.

I offered amendments, rejected by the leadership, to fully fund NCLB, and I have introduced legislation to require the General Accounting Office to evaluate annually whether the federal government is meeting its obligations under NCLB. I will continue to work to improve the law and to secure funding to relieve the burden on state and local taxpayers of NCLB's federal mandates. But, as we mark the second anniversary of this once-promising law, we have less cause for celebration, more reason to revisit its provisions and more grounds to question the commitment of the Administration and Congressional leaders to live up to the financial obligations they made to America's schools.