Last week, we reported that the Utah House Education Committee sent a bill to the floor barring state schools from "any further participation in the No Child Left Behind Act." (See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=133#1656 for background info.) Now it seems that legislators have decided that, while they can live without the law's accountability measures, they can't live without Title I cash. So the bill was amended to allow Utah's continued participation while forbidding districts from using use state or local money to comply with NCLB. State Representative Margaret Dayton explained that Utah can't afford to lose the federal Title I dollars but "won't be bullied into spending sparse state funding to fulfill mandates the federal government underfunds." Who will finally back down? We suspect other states are watching closely.
"New bill keeps school mandate," by Ronnie Lynn, Salt Lake Tribune, February 11, 2004
"Utah house rebukes Bush with its vote on school law," by Sam Dillon, New York Times, February 11, 2004 (registration required)