May 2003 — Special Feature
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NCLB: A New Role for the Federal Government
An Overview of the Most Sweeping Federal Education Law Since 1965
Since congress passed the elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, the role of the U.S. government in education has expanded, leading to the bipartisan reauthorization of ESEA in 2001 called the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act - clearly the most dramatic change in national school legislation since ESEA's inception. NCLB moves the federal government from being primarily a source of funding - now about 9% of every public school dollar - to being a major factor in shaping the substance of K-12 instruction.
Proponents argue that the law will boost student achievement, especially among the poor and minority group members for whom ESEA was originally intended, and will bring accountability to states' and districts' use of federal funds. Opponents fear that NCLB's testing mandates and sanctions for school failure will result in student regimentation and parental abandonment of public education.
What no one disputes is that NCLB has completely reshaped federal involvement in American education. This article provides an overview of the new role of the federal government from five important perspectives:
- The federalization of education under the law;
- The standardization of curriculum, assessment and accountability;
- The systemization of education from relative local autonomy to an increasingly state-based, federally supported arrangement that oversees school accountability;
- Increased privatization of curriculum and assessment, along with more educational choices for parents; and
- The future of public education as we know it, as a result of the NCLB legislation.
To understand the NCLB revolution from these five perspectives, a review of the act's educational and political context is necessary. ESEA, and Title I in particular, were important parts of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty," which sought to compensate for educational deficits in the lives of the nation's poor and minority children. After the National Commission on Excellence in Education released "A Nation at Risk" in 1983, during the Reagan administration, federal efforts under ESEA aimed to improve the level of education for the general populace and the poor.
When standards-based education policies gained favor in the 1990s, voters began to show frustration with a steady stream of low student test scores and the persistent achievement gap between whites and most minority groups. After running for president on his stated record of test results in Texas, following implementation of proto-NCLB reforms in the state, President George W. Bush introduced No Child Left Behind as his first legislative initiative. The final bill was overwhelmingly backed by both Republicans and Democrats.
Federalization
Perhaps it is an "only-Nixon-could-go-to-China" irony that, despite traditional Republican positions favoring local school autonomy and small government, a Republican president signed into law NCLB, which not only increased the national regulation of local education, but also meant growth in federal spending of $22.3 billion on schools.
