Getting relief from No Child Left Behind law could cost California billions

Photograph past Anissa Thompson

In what one Land Board of Education member described as a "jaw-dropping" figure, California education officials gauge information technology could cost the state as much every bit $3 billion to see conditions prepare by the Obama administration to qualify for a waiver of some of the most onerous requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind police.

Yet despite the staggering figures, the board at its meeting in Sacramento yesterday left open the possibility of applying for the waiver, while suggesting it would try to attain a more customized agreement with the federal government tailored to conditions in the state.

The estimates, outlined in a California Department of Pedagogy memo, may be the most detailed of any state of the cost of implementing the waiver. Information technology also represented a notable exercise on the larger landscape of pedagogy reform. Often reforms are advocated, and even adopted, without detailed estimates of what it would cost states, school districts, or schools to implement them, peculiarly over the long term.

State Lath president Michael Kirst yesterday cautioned that any proposed reforms or programs in California demand to be put through a "screen" that takes into account the state's grim financial condition. "There are some things that can exist implemented at most no cost, some things that have articulate costs, and some have hidden costs that can only be extracted through careful analysis," he said.

U.Due south. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last August called the No Child Left Behind a "slow moving train wreck," referring to  the impossible requirement that every child in the nation exist scoring at a good level by the 2013-14 school yr. Under the current trajectory, vast numbers of schools receiving federal dollars are probable to be labelled as declining to brand "adequate yearly progress" every bit specified past the law.

Notwithstanding rather than just granting states a waiver, the Obama administration has decided to impose a series of requirements on states wishing to get one. Those states that don't come across all the requirements for the waiver, or decide not to apply, would still exist required to enforce provisions of the law that the assistants has condemned.

The requirements are like to those established for states applying for the multi-billion dollar Race to the Top fund. In that contest, California, with one in eight of the nation'due south public school children, didn't even make information technology to the final circular, squeezed out past many other finalists including the eventual winners Delaware and Tennessee.

Board member Yvonne Chan questioned the high guess, suggesting that many of the items are initiatives the land would undertake anyway. However, State Superintendent of Public Didactics Tom Torlakson and department staff pointed out that the waiver requires that all changes be adult and implemented within 12 to xv months. And the U.South. Education Section is not assuasive states to write their waivers to fit their ain needs.

"Ultimately we will need to brand some of these expenditures, but non in the next 12 to 15 months," Torlakson said. "We are notwithstanding in a financial crisis."

The California Department of Education's goal was to provide "a reasonable approximate, not inflate the numbers," said Chris Swenson, manager of the department'due south Improvement and Accountability Division.

"These are pretty jaw-dropping numbers," noted lath member James Aschwande—fifty-fifty as he queried whether the estimate might be depression, saying in that location "might exist some add-ons" that could raise the cost above $three.ane billion.

Another issue that came up was the advisability of making changes to meet the waiver requirements while Congress is considering new legislation—the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Human action. NCLB is the current rendition of that act, and any reauthorization is widely expected to eliminate the 100% proficiency requirement in 2022 every bit well as making other important changes that could prove costly to implement.

Nonetheless, Congress began considering reauthorizing the 2002 police in 2007, but the prospects of reaching agreement in a gridlocked Congress are not much greater than they were years agone.

Several representatives of instruction organizations who addressed the lath said that instead of requesting a waiver the state should work with Congress to make sure that the new law will run into California's needs.

Others suggested that California come up with a more "customized" waiver, particularly considering Secretary Duncan has expressed an interest in working in a collaborative way with states. Lath member Trish Williams (and sometime EdSource executive managing director) suggested that the staff wait into it and present their findings at January's meeting.

The federal regime is allowing states to apply for waivers this calendar month, in Feb, and "at the finish of the school year," which many interpret every bit June 2012. For California to meet the June deadline, Torlakson said, the state must develop a timeline past January to permit for public input.

Board members besides asked staff to talk with other states that are considering waivers to meet what they are doing. At this point 39 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico accept indicated they might exist seeking waivers.

"I continue to believe that the best answer for addressing a bad law [NCLB] is to replace it with a proficient 1," Torlakson said in a statement issued afterwards the meeting. "Yet, recognizing the immediate demand for relief amid so many schools, the Country Board will continue to examine the choice of applying for a waiver in a manner that reflects the state's priorities, timetables, and budget constraints."

According to California Section of Education estimates, the costs of implementing the waiver requirements established by the Obama administration include the following:

• Between a quarter ($237 million) and a one-half a billion dollars ($483 million) to implement the "Common Core standards" adopted by California and most other states, including "aligning" curriculum materials with the standards.
• A quarter of a billion dollars ($237 million) for "Common Cadre" professional development for teachers.
• Over one hundred million ($118 million) for "English learner standards and professional development" related to the "Common Cadre."
• Nearly $150 million for a range of activities that will demand to be implemented in the 5 percent of the land's everyman performing schools.
• Nearly $600 one thousand thousand for "teacher collaboration" to build the capacity of the land, local districts, and schools to improve student learning.
• $75 one thousand thousand to ensure that school districts implement teacher and principal evaluation and support systems.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2011/getting-relief-from-no-child-left-behind-law-could-cost-california-billions/3075