The Badger Herald

NEWS

State hoping for no more money left behind

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by Jessi Polsky

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Students throughout Wisconsin are continuing to deal with a lack of funding relating to the No Child Left Behind Act.

According to the National Education Association, Wisconsin has received $593 million less than what was promised to them by the federal government. Nationwide, the NEA reports the federal government has not given over $56 billion in promised funds.

Passed in 2001, NCLB was first used in schools across the country in 2002. Every year since, the federal government has not provided the promised funding for schools across the country — including those in Wisconsin — to effectively implement the program, according to the Institute for One Wisconsin, an educational research group..

"The gap between what was authorized under the Title I portion of No Child Left Behind and what was allocated for the 2002-07 fiscal years … grows wider every year," said Scot Ross, spokesperson for the Institute for One Wisconsin in a statement Tuesday.

Ross said inadequate funding makes it harder for both students and educators to meet the requirements delineated in the act. The broken promises of funding, Ross added, are preventing many schools from meeting the NCLB's many mandates.

"Students and schools are required to meet tough standards, and they're not getting the resources to meet those standards," Ross said.

Mike Thompson, executive assistant to the State Superintendent said that like most federal programs, NCLB needs more funding than is given by the federal government to be successful.

The state has more needy students than federal dollars can assist, Thompson said, and therefore, it has to use its own resources to pay for certain aspects of the act.

"We find it difficult to develop the required assessments, especially the assessments for English language learners and the modified assessments for children with disabilities,” Thompson said. “We also need additional funding … for the data reporting requirement under the law."

Thompson said he strongly supports the act's goals but added the means of achieving them could be improved.

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