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The Naperville Sun is reporting on some of the costs of President Bush’s signature “No Child Left Behind” education plan. I profoundly disagree with the “No Child Left Behind” law, which offers a single, not well thought out federal solution to all public schools in the country. While there are many failings of the law, including the failure of its proponents to have actually accomplished what inspired the law, I will focus here on its failure to fund itself, particularly the implementation costs. For Naperville District 204 it costs $8.50 per pupil just for the data collection software, plus the cost of a staff member who handled almost none of the data before the law, and is now spending a lot of time on it. In District 203 the cost of the curriculum review necessary to align the curriculum with the law’s requirements has meant a lot of staff meetings. The cost of taking these teachers out of the classroom and putting in substitute teachers is substantial. The substitutes alone cost $90/day and could total as much as $200,000. The cost of a regular teacher not teaching their students in the classrooms is, of course, not measured in dollars, and ignored by the law. None of these financial expenses, software, staff to work on data and substitute teachers necessary for curriculum reviews among other costs, are covered by the Bush Administration, which has additionally under-funded what it says it’s own “No Child Left Behind” law requires. That means money that could be going towards the education of our children is going crunching numbers about them. What’s worse, “No Child Left Behind” is based on Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s “Houston Miracle,” an education miracle, now that the fraud has been uncovered, we know never happened (which is why so many people want Rod Paige to resign).

Accountability is great! Let’s start by making public officials accountable for their own legislation. Let’s look really hard at unfunded mandates like “No Child Left Behind” and see (1) if they’re a good idea, (2) if they will do what they say they will do and (3) if they should be payed by others (in this case by states and local school districts instead of the federal government). Finally, you have to wonder about any public official that doesn’t seek to fund his own legislation at the budget they say it needs to work. It’s like saying you will buy a new BMW when you only have decided to pay enough for a used Chevette. It’s great you want a BMW, in the real world you need to pay for it. In the real world our school children are paying for it, they’re all paying for the bill, and the bad policy, left behind.