Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has made good on his nearly 5-month-old threat to sue the U.S. Department of Education over the No Child Left Behind Act, making his state the first to take its objections about the law to the federal courts.
Filed Aug. 22 in U.S. District Court in Hartford, the state鈥檚 complaint in Connecticut v. Spellings argues that federal funding to the state for the No Child Left Behind law falls far short of what is needed to meet the law鈥檚 testing and accountability requirements. The suit contends the failure to fully fund the law violates a provision in the nearly 4-year-old education statute itself that says states will not be required 鈥渢o spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this act.鈥�
鈥淥ur message today is: Give up the unfunded mandates, or give us the money,鈥� Mr. Blumenthal said at a press conference in his office after filing the lawsuit.
Although surrounded by key Connecticut education leaders and policymakers who expressed their support at the announcement, Mr. Blumenthal said no other state had joined the legal action. Since first threatening to sue over the law in April, he has said one of the reasons he has waited to do so was to give other states a chance to take part.
The 28-page complaint recounts how Connecticut鈥檚 attempts to get waivers of some of the student-assessment provisions in the No Child Left Behind law have been repeatedly denied in recent months by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
In particular, Connecticut education officials sought unsuccessfully to get out of the law鈥檚 requirement that they expand their testing system鈥攚hich assesses students in mathematics and reading in grades 4, 6, and 8鈥攖o cover the entire span of grades 3-8. An estimate by the state department of education pegs the cost of putting in place those and other additional assessments called for in the law at $41.6 million by 2008, compared with $33.6 million that the state is slated to receive from the federal government by then for test implementation.
鈥淭he additional tests, as imposed by the requirements of NCLB, are of questionable merit,鈥� state Commissioner of Education Betty J. Sternberg said at the Aug. 22 press conference. 鈥淭here is no research base that tells us that additional testing of this type will yield better results.鈥�
Connecticut also has unsuccessfully sought flexibility in the law鈥檚 requirements on the testing of special education students and students who are learning English.
The state鈥檚 legal case rests largely on the so-called unfunded-mandates provision in the No Child Left Behind law, which says that 鈥渘othing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize鈥� the federal government to 鈥渕andate a state or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this chapter.鈥� The complaint also cites the spending clause in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which has been construed by the courts as requiring Congress to make unambiguous any conditions attached to states鈥� acceptance of federal money.
Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Education Department, called the lawsuit 鈥渦nfortunate鈥� in a written statement. Arguing that Secretary Spellings has worked to meet states鈥� concerns about the law, she added nonetheless that testing in each grade, from 3-8, is needed to catch problems in a timely manner.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 action doesn鈥檛 bring the state any closer to closing its achievement gap, which is among the largest in the nation,鈥� Ms. Aspey said.
In June, the department asked a judge in U.S. District Court in Detroit to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed by the National Education Association, arguing that the No Child Left Behind Act is not an unfunded mandate because states are under no obligation to take the federal money allocated for it. The department鈥檚 motion is pending. (鈥淯.S. Asks Court to Dismiss Lawsuit Over NCLB,鈥� July 13, 2005.)
Turning that argument around at his press conference, Attorney General Blumenthal said that by threatening to withhold money from the state if it doesn鈥檛 comply with the law鈥檚 requirements, the federal government is putting hundreds of millions of dollars for Connecticut鈥檚 schools at risk. That fear, he added, is partly why other states haven鈥檛 joined the suit, although he left open the possibility that some other states may yet do so.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 money that goes to schools that serve our neediest children,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t goes to school lunch programs, after-school programs, reading-achievement programs, all of the kinds of programs that are necessary for meeting the objectives and goals of No Child Left Behind.鈥�
The federal Education Department has 60 days to file a legal response, which could be a motion to dismiss the case.
Meanwhile, the case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Mark R. Kravitz.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping he will expedite our case, and it won鈥檛 be years, but a matter of months,鈥� Mr. Blumenthal said.
