Posted on: Sunday, April 20, 2003

EDITORIAL
Opting out of No Child law isn't right choice

Policy-makers within the state public school system face an almost impossible choice as they struggle to deal with the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind education law: Fail to meet the demanding requirements of the law, and you stand to lose tens of millions in federal education dollars.

But do what is necessary to meet the requirements of the law, and you will almost certainly spend far more than you win in federal support.

Some states faced with this choice, including Hawai'i, are considering bailing out of the federal program altogether. That may look like an appealing option, considering we will spend more than we collect by staying in.

But it might well not be the right decision. For starters, the new law — for all its flaws — does push states to insist on higher standards and higher levels of accountability. Almost everyone agrees this makes sense.

The right choice is to work with the federal law, not against it.

A second reason to not opt out is that the overall costs of such a decision remain unknown. The focus of the law is on so-called "Title 1" schools with high proportions of low-income students.

But it is entirely possible that the entire spectrum of federal support, including Title 1, federal Impact Aid and other support programs, could be threatened by non-participation.

The ultimate solution, of course, is to push Uncle Sam to pay the full costs of this ambitious new program. That's unlikely.

In the absence of full funding, then, states should band together to insist on at least a greater proportion of federal support for the costs of counseling, tutoring, professional development, testing and other costs associated with the demands of No Child Left Behind.

And they should insist that penalties for failure to comply be proportionate. That is, if school systems are making substantial progress toward meeting the goals of No Child, their federal support should not be threatened with all-or-nothing ultimatums.

Hawai'i's delegation in Congress is small but relatively influential. It should use that influence to make the No Child program work positively. Some critics have said this law was designed not to work, but rather to force schools "to fail their way into vouchers."

That may sound cynical. But unless this program is revised to take into account the realities of education, it could happen.