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New Mexico delegation wary of reauthorizing No Child Left Behind

By James W. Brosnan
Thursday, January 31, 2008

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WASHINGTON — With more than half of New Mexico's public schools failing to meet yearly progress goals, New Mexico Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia would like to see Congress amend the federal No Child Left Behind law that flunks schools if even a handful of special education or Spanish-speaking students don't pass annual tests.

But maybe not until next year, when George W. Bush is no longer president.

"Perhaps waiting until after the general election would be wise," Garcia told The Tribune.

That wait-until-next-year mood, plus Bush's opposition to any major changes to his signature education reform, is why Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat, is predicting that it will be harder to pass any bill reauthorizing No Child Left Behind than it was to pass the original law in 1992 and that the chore might fall to the next president.

"That may be what happens. I think we should try to get agreement between the president and Congress on changes. There is a consensus among people here in the Senate who have worked hard on this that we need to make significant changes in the law, and the sooner we make those changes the better it will be for the schools," Bingaman said.

Bingaman serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and helped chairman Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, negotiate the first law with President Bush.

Under that law, states were required to test students on a regular basis in reading and math, and starting in 2007, science. Schools were graded on whether students made acceptable progress. Schools that failed were required to let students transfer to other schools and after continued failure, to offer tutoring.

Bush hailed the success of the law in his State of the Union message Monday night.

"Last year, fourth- and eighth-graders achieved the highest math scores on record. Reading scores are on the rise. African-American and Hispanic students posted all-time highs. Now we must work together to increase accountability, add flexibility for states and districts, reduce the number of high school dropouts, provide extra help for struggling schools," Bush said.

The White House says that since No Child Left Behind, the federal government has poured more than $130 billion into local schools, but the National Education Association says that's still more than $60 billion short of what the law authorized.

Bingaman said No Child Left Behind has "accomplished some good things," but he's disappointed Congress hasn't been able to fund it completely and make it more workable.

He noted that about 54 percent of New Mexico's schools have not measured up on yearly progress reports.

Currently, only 45 of the 133 Albuquerque schools have passed all 37 benchmarks, said Rigo Chavez, spokesman for Albuquerque Public Schools. About 60,000 students are eligible to demand a transfer, but only about 1,600 have applied, he said.

Many of the schools failed because of poor scores by special education or non-English-speaking students, he said.

Bingaman said many schools fail to meet progress goals for the same reasons.

"Clearly, you want to have accountability to bring those students along too, but I don't think you want to assume that because the English-as-a-second-language kids are not doing as well that the entire school is determined to be subpar," Bingaman said.

Garcia and Chavez agreed that the rankings would be better with a "growth" model that measured each group's progress toward a proficiency goal, rather than a pass-fail system.

"I think the spirit of No Child Left Behind is good in that, regardless of poverty or ethnicity or disability, we need to be accountable for all children and that we close the achievement gap," Garcia said.

Bingaman also believes more attention needs to be focused on failing high schools and particularly on about 2,000 "dropout factories" around the country.

Last year Bingaman and Kennedy introduced legislation to authorized $2.5 billion a year in new spending to turn around high schools with low graduation rates.

Like Bingaman, Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, has heard from educators who believe their schools are at a disadvantage because they have so many students whose first language is not English and who do not test well.

"That is an example of one area we can look at for change," Domenici said.

Rep. Steve Pearce, a Hobbs Republican, would like to see Congress reauthorize No Child Left Behind this year so Congress can respond to some of the complaints he's heard that the requirements are too rigid and don't account for a number of things that influence results, said Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips.

Rep. Tom Udall, Santa Fe Democrat, who like Pearce is running for Domenici's Senate seat, said he had reservations about reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.

"We need to fight for legislation that gives every student, regardless of where they attend school, a quality education from a qualified teacher in a stable, safe environment," Udall said.

Bush also proposed a new $300 million program of grants for children from failing schools to attend private schools. Domenici and Pearce expressed interest in the plan, but Udall said Bush was just "rebranding" a school voucher plan and Bingaman said it will go nowhere in the Democratically controlled Congress.

Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican also running for the Senate, declined comment on questions about No Child Left Behind.

The National Education Association is pushing for a major rollback of testing, which it argues has forced school districts to cut the time spent on social studies, art, music, science and physical education.

Kennedy plans to introduce a proposal in March.

The two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, serve with Bingaman on Kennedy's committee. Both candidates have vowed to make major changes in No Child Left Behind while retaining some measures of "accountability" for schools.

Both the Republican front-runners, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have emphasized school choice plans but Romney also has said there needs to be more flexibility in how schools are rated under No Child Left Behind.

Bingaman said that beyond the rhetoric of the presidential campaigns, there is general agreement that the federal government needs to continue to support local schools and demand accountability for performance.