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Blumenthal Continues NCLB Fight
TORRINGTON - State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is
taking the federal government to court and asking the state’s
school districts to support him.
"We are suing the federal government regarding the No Child
Left Behind unfunded mandates," Blumenthal said Friday
afternoon after addressing the Litchfield Hills Council of
Elected Officials earlier in the day.
The council met with Blumenthal Friday morning in City Hall
and included officials from the region’s municipalities.
"We are fighting for Connecticut’s children," Blum-enthal said.
"The (federal) government should give us the money (for the
mandates) as required by law."
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was signed into
law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002 and
mandates school districts to test students every year from
grades three through eight to make sure the students are
reaching basic proficiency levels in core subjects, especially
reading.
The act also makes states and school districts accountable for
student performance, and gives parents choices of where
their children can attend school, according to the U.S.
Department of Education.
While Blumenthal supports the concept and overall goals of
the law, he said the state would lose $41.6 million each year
in testing costs alone that the federal government will not pay
for.
"For towns and cities who have stricter requirements, the loss
will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Blumenthal
said.
About 117 of the state’s 159 school districts, including
Torrington, Winsted, and the Litchfield public school districts,
have endorsed Blumenthal’s suit.
Blumenthal said arguments in the case were heard two weeks
ago and there should be some kind of decision on the case in
the spring.
"I’m going to come and talk to various boards of education
and townships to explain the suit," Blumenthal said.
School districts would lose federal funding if the mandates
are not followed, Blumenthal said.
In the case of Regional School District 7 in Litchfield, 1.8
percent of the school budget consists of federal money,
according to the Strategic School Profile compiled by the state
Department of Education.
As an example, the district could have lost about $260,000 of
its $14.4 million in the 2003-04 budget if it failed to follow
the act.
Seventy-five percent of the budget is raised locally through
property taxes and 19.3 percent comes from the state,
according to the profile.
The remaining 4.4 percent comes from tuition and other
sources.
Charles W. Kim can be reached by e-mail at
torrington@registercitizen.com. Jenna Ciaramella can be
reached at litchfield@registercitizen.com.
— Charles W. Kim
The Register Citizen
2006-02-14
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