Former Education Sec'y Defends Administration's NCLBA
by Jim Brown
May 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige says those who have filed a lawsuit challenging President Bush's signature education reform law are either "confused or have other priorities."The National Education Association and school districts in three states recent sued the Bush administration over the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), claiming the government has failed to adequately fund the law. Paige, Bush's former education czar, says the general public should be aware of a key fact. "That is a tiny fraction of the 16,000-plus school districts in the United States of America," he says.
Paige, who now serves on the board of trustees for the Fordham Foundation, notes that NCLBA is the eighth reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act first enacted in 1965.
"States have the right to make their own decisions about public education. In fact, our founding fathers were silent about public education when they crafted the Constitution," he notes. "The problem is, if you receive federal funds, you should be in compliance with the federal guidelines and regulations and laws."
On the other hand, Paige says if a state decides not to comply with federal guidelines, it has the right not to participate.
Addressing another education issue, the former federal education secretary says the racial achievement gap in schools is "the civil rights issue of our lifetime" -- but that in his opinion, it is not being narrowed as steadily as he would like. Closing that gap, he believes, is the most important strategy to obtain the traditional of black Americans.
"That traditional goal has always been, even all the way back to 1619, racial equality and full citizenship in America," Paige states. "And pursuit of that goal requires us to end this un-American achievement gap and to make sure that every child has not only an opportunity to achieve, but an excellent opportunity to achieve."
Paige contends there are "islands of excellence" across the country, but the problem is that the nation has been unable to bring that to scale -- and as a result, minority, special-education, and limited-English proficiency students are still being left behind.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
