Study: No Child Left Behind adequately funded

Amid a growing chorus of complaints that the federal government isn’t allocating states enough money to carry out mandates in President Bush’s new education law, two recent reports dispute the notion that No Child Left Behind is underfunded.

A major national cost study prepared jointly by AccountabilityWorks, a nonprofit research organization, and by the Education Leaders Council shows that states are profiting from the education spending increases triggered by No Child Left Behind and says there is “little solid evidence that NCLB is insufficiently funded.”

In a summary of their findings released last week, the two groups report that studies which claim to prove insufficient federal funds are provided often include in their calculations expenditures that are not required by NCLB.

“In other cases, such studies include expenditures that were required by prior federal law,” according to the summary.

A separate analysis by the majority staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued last month says federal education funding is increasing so rapidly that most states can’t spend the money quickly enough and that Maine has almost $6 million in unspent money under a 2002 federal grant.

But state officials said Tuesday that Maine actually has only $1.2 million remaining and pointed out that the time allotted to spend the money wouldn’t be up for another 13 months.

Julian Haynes, a former legislative aide for education who worked at U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ Washington office when No Child Left Behind was being crafted, took issue this week with often-repeated statements that the law is underfunded.

True, the appropriations levels haven’t met the authorized levels, but legislation seldom is funded at the full authorization amount, he said.

“What is important is that, in Maine, since 2001, federal funding for No Child Left Behind has increased by more than 50 percent,” he said.

But Patrick Phillips, deputy commissioner at the Maine Department of Education, said the concern many states have is “not how much is in the bank now, but [whether] along about 2006 and 2007 and 2008, will we have enough money to support the interventions” required by the law to help improve schools.

If a bill sponsored by Sen. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, passes, Maine plans to study the costs associated with No Child Left Behind, probably using a model being developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers in Washington, D.C., said Phillips.

The CCSSO is a bipartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head K-12 schools.