Fast Report
03/08 -- Spellings plans administrative changes in NCLB
• If the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act stalls in Congress, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is prepared to make administrative changes to NCLB, said senior policy adviser Doug Mesacar during a briefing convened by the No Child Left Behind Commission Jan. 31.
Among the issues the secretary could address are requiring states to use a uniform definition for graduation rates and improving the implementation and delivery of supplemental education services and school choice.
Staff members of both the House and Senate education committees said the committee chairs and ranking Republicans all want to move ahead quickly to reauthorize NCLB this year -- and say it can be done as long as there is bipartisan support.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, wants to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to helping struggling schools, said an aide.
Court finds NCLB mandate unconstitutional
• The 6th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court ruled Jan. 7 that NCLB’s “unfunded mandate” provision means that it is unconstitutional to require states and school districts to spend their own money to comply with the law’s mandates (School District of the City of Pontiac v. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.)
The Pontiac, Mich., district’s argument is based on the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which requires Congress to clearly state which strings are attached to federal funds. The district charged that when Congress and the Administration took credit for enacting NCLB but failed to pay the costs of implementing it, they violated the Spending Clause.
The suit was filed in 2005 by nine school districts, the National Education Association, and nine state NEA affiliates.
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced Feb. 1 that the department will file a petition for a rehearing with the entire appeals court.
High school focuses on homeland security
• The Harford County, Md., school board has created the first high school program in the nation focusing on homeland security. The program started this fall at Joppatowne High School with 61 sophomores.
The program was created in response to the growing number of jobs in homeland security and emergency preparedness, said Greg Komondor, assistant principal and director of the school’s homeland security program.
He knows of no other school with a similar program but has gotten calls from several school officials interested in learning more about the concept.
Joppatowne students start with a basic introductory course, then choose one of three strands:
• homeland security sciences, which covers chemical and biological threat identification, protection, and decontamination concepts;
• information/communications technology, which includes training in geographic information systems and remote sensing; or
• law enforcement/ criminal justice, which includes a review of the various roles in this field, such as first responders and evidence collectors.
Students participate in a capstone project in their senior year, which consists of an industry-sponsored project, series of job-shadowing experiences, or an internship at such nearby facilities as the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, or one of the many defense contractors in the area.