Acting Deputy Secretary Gene Hickok today issued the following statement in response to a poll and a report by the National Education Association:

"The fact that the National Education Association (NEA) poll found that there has been a sea change in attitude towards schools (a 20-point net change from 'bad shape' to 'good shape' in just one year) shows that something is new and different about education in America today. That something is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which has empowered parents with information about their child's school, making them truly educated consumers of education.

"Some of the polling questions and analysis show a deep misunderstanding of what is actually in the law. The NEA is calling for many policies that are in fact already contained in NCLB, such as flexibility, measuring success by multiple measures, giving extra help to schools that states have identified for improvement and improved teacher quality.

"The law is extremely flexible. For example, all 50 states and the District of Columbia submitted their own accountability plans. Each state creates its own assessments and sets its own levels for achievement, accountability and teacher quality. Under the law, data must be disaggregated, so that all children, whether they are African American, Hispanic or learning disabled are counted and can no longer be left adrift because they are hidden in an ocean of averages. If states do not meet the goals that they set for themselves, they are not 'punished.' Rather, the law provides options to parents to get their children up to grade level and extra resources to the school to get back on track.

"NCLB focuses on facts, not just feelings and hunches. It is no longer acceptable to simply believe schools are improving without knowing for certain whether they are. As Robert F. Kennedy asked in 1965 when the predecessor of No Child Left Behind, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was enacted, "What happened to the children? [How do we know] whether they can read or not?" With new state accountability systems, now we'll know.

"The NEA's notion of funding levels for this law is truly pulp fiction. President Bush has increased the investment in K-12 education by 40 percent or $11 billion since he took office. This represents more of a funding increase in two years under the president's leadership than under the eight previous years of the Clinton administration. As a nation, we spent $488 billion last year on K-12 education locally and federally--more than on national defense, and more per pupil than any other nation in the world, except Switzerland. If the states are lacking money for implementation, then how is it that the states have $5.75 billion in previously appropriated funds that remain unclaimed and unobligated at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for six big federal education programs? These funds can be accessed today. They have been available for more than one year and in some cases for three years--as far back as fiscal year 2000. This nearly $6 billion in funding does not include the tens of billions of dollars that became available last year in the 2003 federal budget.

"No Child Left Behind simply says that every child in this nation should be able to read and do math at grade level. Given the historic investment in education nationally, is this really too much to ask? We wish we could have had an honest debate with the NEA about No Child Left Behind, and we would welcome the opportunity to put knee-jerk reactions aside and sit down with them to carefully review what is in the law and why it is right for children."

###

Top

Back to January 2004