Study Says NCLB Needs an Overhaul
By Staff -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2005
No Child Left Behind, President George Bush's sweeping education reform law, gives the federal government too much power over public education and needs an overhaul, says a recent report by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a Denver–based, nonprofit organization that supports state legislators.
"There are serious problems with the law," says Scott Young, a senior NCSL policy specialist who helped write the report. "The expectation that schools become 100 percent proficient is unrealistic." Under the 2001 law, schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress or face severe government-enforced penalties. As a result, school districts have been forced to allocate their resources to improving math and reading scores and to make cuts in areas that they deem less important, including school libraries. By returning authority to states, Young says, library funding may be restored.
The report, "Task Force on No Child Left Behind," has been distributed to members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Education in the hopes that lawmakers will make adjustments to the law.
