More States Are Fighting 'No Child Left Behind' Law
Complex Provisions, Funding Gaps In Bush Education Initiative Cited

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 19, 2004; Page A03

Two years after President Bush proclaimed a "new era" in American public education with the passage of his No Child Left Behind initiative, a growing number of state legislators and school administrators are looking for ways to opt out of requirements they view as intrusive and underfunded.

Resistance that began in New England last year over the implementation of the broadest education reforms in a generation has spread to several southern and western states, with Republicans joining Democrats in criticizing a plan that once enjoyed bipartisan support.

Utah's Republican-dominated House voted last week to refuse to implement No Child Left Behind "except where there is adequate federal funding." The bill, now before the state Senate, closely parallels a move last year by the Vermont legislature to bar any state funding for the Bush education reforms.

Over the past few days, Republican legislators in Arizona and Minnesota have introduced bills that would allow the states to reject parts of No Child Left Behind or opt out of its provisions. The legislatures of at least 10 other states, from Virginia to Washington, have adopted resolutions critical of the law or requested waivers from the Education Department.

While the protests have yet to become a nationwide rebellion, some analysts predict that the movement to opt out of the program will gather momentum as more and more schools are put on watch lists required by the law that designate them "in need of improvement." As many as half the schools in some states have failed to meet the law's complicated definition of "adequate yearly progress" in student test scores, triggering a range of costly remedial measures and sanctions.