Bush seeks to expand education act
WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday proposed spending $1.5 billion to expand his controversial ''No Child Left Behind" education reforms to high schools and requiring public schools to test secondary school students yearly in reading and mathematics.
''If you believe every child in America can learn, then it makes sense to raise the bar," Bush said at an appearance at a suburban Washington high school. ''That's called accountability for results," he said.
The announcement, part of the White House's plan to lay out Bush's domestic agenda in advance of his second inauguration next week, made official the president's campaign pledge to broaden No Child Left Behind, which the Department of Education credits with improving reading and math test scores.
The primary education overhaul was a defining legislative victory for Bush in his first administration, when he worked with a bipartisan team of lawmakers to create a new role for the federal government in setting standards for elementary and secondary education.
But in the three years since Bush signed the program into law, No Child Left Behind has come under criticism by teachers and school administrators, who argue that the program is underfunded and often unworkable. Stretching the plan to include high school students may only exacerbate the problems some school districts are having with instituting the program, education and teachers' groups said.
''We think that it's premature, because you have a number of school boards and state legislatures that already have problems with the implementation of the existing law," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association. ''Testing only gives more bureaucracy and paperwork. What parents and teachers want for the kids is smaller class sizes, textbooks, and supplies."
The program sets standards for academic success and requires schools to achieve yearly progress in testing results. Schools where the students do not make the federal grade can be required to provide additional tutoring or allow students to transfer to other schools. Ultimately, a school can be declared ''failing" and turned over to state or private management.
Expanding the program to high schools could be complicated, education officials and analysts said, because there is no national consensus on what high school students should be learning. Currently, schools must test students during at least one high school year, and schools can select which year they want to test. The new proposal would mandate testing for students in the ninth through the 11th grades, and Capitol Hill lawmakers expect that the idea will eventually include high school seniors as well.
While it is generally agreed that students in the third through eighth grades -- those now being tested yearly under the program -- should meet minimum standards for reading and math, school districts have different perspectives on what secondary school students should be learning or accomplishing, said Krista Kafer, an education analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
''There is this whole issue of, what is high school for? There are those who stress vocational education; others stress a college-bound" curriculum, she said. ''I'm not saying it lacks merit, but there are discussions that need to occur. No Child Left Behind still has glitches, and we should get those ironed out . . . before moving on."
The law has been a top priority for Bush. In his first year in office, Bush worked closely with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to forge compromise language on a reform package both men hoped would improve learning in America's schools.
But since then, the program has become a source of discord between the parties, and it has drawn criticism from Kennedy and other earlier supporters of the package. Some critics argue that the bill has proven unworkable in many school districts, and many have said that the Bush administration has vastly underfunded the bill, putting financial pressure on school districts already suffering budget cuts.
''We are past the point where we can afford only to talk the talk, without walking the walk. It's time for the White House to realize that America cannot expand opportunity and embrace the future on a tin-cup education budget," Kennedy said yesterday in response to Bush's proposal.
The National Governors Association has called the existing program an ''unfunded mandate," meaning that it requires localities to meet certain standards, but doesn't give them enough money to accomplish them.
Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the federal Office of Management and Budget, said funding for programs that come under the No Child Left Behind law have grown by 40 percent, from $17.38 billion to $24.37 billion between 2001 and 2005. ''The president has provided the added resources needed to help them meet the mission he's established under the No Child Left Behind program," Kolton said.
But Kennedy and others note that the program has never been fully unded. Since the law was signed in 2002, the cumulative amount of money provided for the program has been $27 billion short of the amount Congress authorized for it, he said.
''I welcome President Bush's remarks today on improving our high schools. But it's clear that unless we fund the reforms under the No Child Behind Act for earlier grades and younger children, what we do in high schools will matter far less," Kennedy said.
Bush's new education package also includes a $200 million increase in funding for his grade school ''Striving Readers" program, and $269 million for the mathematics and Science Partnership program, meant to help schools meet upcoming federal standards for math and science achievement. An additional $500 million would be put into a fund to reward successful teachers in low-income schools. The proposals will be part of Bush's fiscal 2006 budget plan, to be unveiled next month.
Theodore Rebarber, chief executive officer of the Education Leadership Council, praised Bush's second-term education package as ''a very promising proposal. These programs have a very strong track record with students, helping them meet higher standards," he said.
But Rebarber also said that the plan to expand the law to high schools will be more of a challenge because in high school there is a greater tradition of putting students on different academic tracks. Some districts might chafe at the idea of having a single standard for all students.
But the Bush administration believes the standards are critical for the current and coming generations of high school students. Outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige said in a recent speech that 80 percent of the jobs created in the 21st century will require post-secondary education. 