Spellings warns states to comply with NCLB despite court ruling
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has warned states that they still have to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), despite a recent court ruling allowing a lawsuit that challenges its funding. Spellings told a group of business leaders in San Diego that her department will vigorously fight the Jan. 7 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The court revived a challenge to the federal law by allowing a lawsuit filed by school districts in three states and the nation's largest teachers union. The plaintiffs claim the law is an unfunded mandate. "Today I will be sending a letter to all state (education) chiefs telling them No Child Left Behind stands. It's on the books and it's business as usual," Spellings told a business roundtable at the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. She has called the law a compact between the federal government and states. In the letter to state education officials, she said achievement rates have risen under the six-year-old education law, especially for poor and minority children. “The Sixth Circuit's decision undermines the efforts we have made under NCLB to improve the education of our nation's children, particularly those children most in need. If the decision stands, it would represent a fundamental shift in practice,” she wrote in the letter.
Source: mlive.com, 1/18/08, By Juliet Williams (Associated Press)
[Editor’s Note: The Secretary’s letter, below, states, “The Sixth Circuit’s jurisdiction consists of the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Courts outside the Sixth Circuit may reject its reasoning. Moreover the Sixth Circuit’s ruling, if it stands, would only provide a limited defense in future enforcement proceedings. No state or school district should regard the ruling as license to disregard NCLB’s requirements.” The decision is summarized at the second link. The department could request the Sixth Circuit to reconsider its decision with all of the circuit’s judges sitting en banc, could seek U.S. Supreme Court review, or could argue in the U.S. district court to which the case was remanded over the application of the Sixth Circuit’s ruling and the appropriate remedy. The lawsuit seeks a court order “declaring that states and school districts are not required to spend non-NCLB funds to comply with the NCLB mandates, and that a failure to comply with the NCLB mandates for this reason does not provide a basis for withholding any federal funds to which they otherwise are entitled under the NCLB.” Meanwhile, NSBA’s Office of Advocacy reports that staff to U.S. Senate education committee chair Edward Kennedy hope to begin marking up NCLB reauthorization legislation in early March. All quiet on the House front.]
Spellings letter
NSBA School Law pages on School Dist. of the City of Pontiac v. Spellings