Posted on: Monday, May 17, 2004

EDITORIAL
Cooperation needed on the No Child law

Hawai'i's struggle to comply with the rules and requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind education law has not been easy.

Difficult-to-enforce standards and chronic underfunding have left some — mostly in the Legislature — muttering about dropping out of the federal education game altogether.

On balance, that makes no sense.

Withdrawing from federal participation in No Child could threaten all federal education funding for Hawai'i — a considerable chunk of the total education budget. Particularly critical is money under the so-called Title 1, which helps schools with substantial numbers of students from low-income families.

Hawai'i simply cannot afford to do without Title 1 money.

And then there is the possibility that other forms of federal education money, including impact aid and even support for educational programs for Hawaiians, could be affected.

So, what is needed rather than confrontation is sensible change to the federal law — more flexibility in imposing and arriving at standards, for instance — as well as more federal support.

Achieving those goals will require cooperation, and a fair amount of give-and-take, between the states and the federal government.

One avenue toward achieving that cooperation may have emerged recently in Wisconsin, where that state's attorney general has issued an opinion that the federal government cannot force states to comply with No Child absent full financing.

Granted, this is just one opinion from one state, but it might open the door to a joint lawsuit involving many or even all the states challenging the law.

The goal, one hopes, would not be to strike down the law altogether, but to make it work in a setting where all parties are on an equal legal footing.

Hawai'i should consider joining in the Wisconsin opinion and any ensuing lawsuit.

On the campaign trail, President Bush has been touting the success of his education policies. And it is unarguably true that he was successful in getting this sweeping new education law through a skeptical Congress.

But success must be measured by more than simply passing a law. Success means making it work, in real time, in real classrooms across the country.

That's the task ahead.