A pending House bill would allow any other state to opt out of the requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and instead use federal money to satisfy education needs, according to the bill's sponsors.
The bill, titled the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act of 2007 or A-PLUS, would allow all states to provide the secretary of education with a "declaration of intent" to assume full responsibility for the education of their students.
But the National Education Association says the bill introduced last week by Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., does nothing to help solve the real problems of the No Child Left Behind Act and might actually end up hurting those children — namely minorities or those in special education — that the law was designed to protect.
"No Child Left Behind has created more testing, more paperwork and has cost schools more money to comply with federal mandates," Hoekstra said when he introduced the bill. "We will soon have federal government schools should we continue to follow the current trajectory of adding more tests in more subjects such as science, geography, history, economics, government, civics and physical education with new federal mandates and penalties."
This from the Deseret Morning News.
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