North Dakota state legislators and school board members are shocked! shocked! to discover that the U.S. Department of Education has rejected the state's plan for designating elementary teachers as "highly qualified" pursuant to NCLB requirements. (North Dakota deems teachers highly qualified if they have a state license; NCLB requires a license and some evidence of subject-content mastery.) The state's lone Congressman, Democrat Earl Pomeroy, is encouraging school boards to sue the Department if the 3,800 teachers affected by the ruling aren't deemed highly qualified. "This is an absolute insult," railed Pomeroy in his best Mr. Smith impression. "More than half of these teachers have been teaching for 20 years." State board members cried foul that the Department was changing the rules mid-way through the game: "Everything was looking good, and now they come and ding us," said board member Dan Vainonen. The only problem with this chorus of woe is that the state's own Department of Public Instruction told lawmakers last year that North Dakota's system did not meet NCLB requirements and would have to be changed. "We believe the wording was specific and clear," said a state department official. Kudos to both education departments for standing firm.
"Congressman Pomeroy: Consider suing DOE," by Paulette Tobin, Grand Forks Herald, December 18, 2004
"North Dakota: Federal rules leave teachers behind," Associated Press, December 11, 2004