Posted on: Sunday, October 6, 2002
EDITORIAL
Federal school law still in its infancy
Considering what could have happened, the first wave of responses to mandates contained in the new No Child Left Behind federal education law has been modest enough.
But education officials should not let down their guard or pretend to themselves that the stiff requirements and major changes envisioned in the law will go away. We remain on the ramp for major changes to our education system, either accomplished locally from within or imposed from outside.
Clearly, it is better to make the necessary changes according to our own desires and resources rather than following a template imposed by the federal law.
We learned to our own discomfort how difficult it is to meet imposed requirements when we found ourselves obligated to an extremely expensive special-education reform program enforced by federal courts under the Felix Consent Decree.
According to Education Writer Jennifer Hiller, only 131 struggling students have applied for a free transfer to another, better-performing school, under the requirements of the law. Substantially more, perhaps 3,000 or so, have indicate they will seek state-paid after-school tutoring for their children.
School officials say these numbers are manageable. And they are. But as the full impact and scope of this law settle in, it is almost certain that more children will be added to the list.
There are around 48,000 students attending schools that did not meet the state's academic goals last year, and a good portion of those students will qualify for transfers, tutoring or other help under the law.
As their families become aware of what is available and required, it is almost certain that the number of applicants will increase. In addition, the list of obligations that fall on the schools and the state grows larger every year that a school continues to not meet standards.
What this year's numbers offer is breathing room, but hardly an escape from a law that is designed to bring profound and lasting change to the way public education is handled in Hawai'i and across the nation.
