lawyerlee
08-23-2005, 10:43 AM
I guess it was just a matter of time. Glad to see someone finally challenge this intrusive, unnecessarily burdensome law.
Connecticut Sues the U.S. Over School Testing (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/nyregion/23child.html?pagewanted=print)
NY Times
By SAM DILLON
Connecticut sued the federal government yesterday, accusing the Bush administration of being "rigid, arbitrary and capricious" in the enforcement of its signature education law and seeking relief from a requirement that it scrap its own testing program in favor of one the state says will not help children but will cost millions.
The suit, the first by a state to challenge Mr. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, argues that Connecticut is not being adequately reimbursed for the cost of expanding to annual testing from its current schedule of every other year.
Officials said that and other provisions of the law would force Connecticut to spend $50 million of its own money in coming years. The law specifically bans the federal government from imposing mandates without financing them.
"No matter how good its goals, and I agree with N.C.L.B.'s goals, the federal government is not above the law," said Connecticut's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal.
The suit opens a new front in a struggle between the federal government and the many states that have objected to the law, in some cases by passing legislative protests, as in Utah, and in others, such as Texas, by defying federal rulings.
Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat, had sought to persuade other states to join the suit, but without success, although Maine officials said yesterday that they were seriously considering their own lawsuit.
Mr. Blumenthal said other states were reluctant because they had not yet done the studies that could prove that the federal law had caused them to spend state money on federal mandates. He said "fear of retaliation by the Bush administration" had also made some states reluctant.
Connecticut Sues the U.S. Over School Testing (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/nyregion/23child.html?pagewanted=print)
NY Times
By SAM DILLON
Connecticut sued the federal government yesterday, accusing the Bush administration of being "rigid, arbitrary and capricious" in the enforcement of its signature education law and seeking relief from a requirement that it scrap its own testing program in favor of one the state says will not help children but will cost millions.
The suit, the first by a state to challenge Mr. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, argues that Connecticut is not being adequately reimbursed for the cost of expanding to annual testing from its current schedule of every other year.
Officials said that and other provisions of the law would force Connecticut to spend $50 million of its own money in coming years. The law specifically bans the federal government from imposing mandates without financing them.
"No matter how good its goals, and I agree with N.C.L.B.'s goals, the federal government is not above the law," said Connecticut's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal.
The suit opens a new front in a struggle between the federal government and the many states that have objected to the law, in some cases by passing legislative protests, as in Utah, and in others, such as Texas, by defying federal rulings.
Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat, had sought to persuade other states to join the suit, but without success, although Maine officials said yesterday that they were seriously considering their own lawsuit.
Mr. Blumenthal said other states were reluctant because they had not yet done the studies that could prove that the federal law had caused them to spend state money on federal mandates. He said "fear of retaliation by the Bush administration" had also made some states reluctant.