Utah Vote Rejects Parts of Education Law

In a stinging rebuke of President Bush's signature education law, the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that orders state officials to ignore provisions of the federal law that conflict with Utah's education goals or that require state financing.
The bill is the most explicit legislative challenge to the federal law by a state, and its passage marked the collapse of a 15-month lobbying effort against it by the Bush administration.
Federal officials fear Utah's action could embolden other states to resist what many states consider intrusive or unfunded provisions of the federal law, known as No Child Left Behind.

Secretary Spellings Replies:
The Legislature's swipe at No Child Left Behind could end up hurting Utah kids, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said Wednesday.
"Turning back the clock and returning to the pre-NCLB days of fuzzy accountability and hiding children in averages will do nothing to help the students who are currently enrolled in Utah's schools," Spellings said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday in response to passage of HB1001.
"States across the nation who have embraced No Child Left Behind have shown progress; student achievement is rising and the achievement gap is closing," she said. "The same could be true in Utah, whose achievement gap between Hispanics and their peers is the third-largest in the nation and has not improved significantly in over a decade."
But Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem and sponsor of HB1001, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington believe Utah children will be better served under the bill.
"I wish they'd quit defending a flawed law and have a dialogue with the state (school) chiefs," said Harrington, adding she never heard back on a January request to chat with Spellings. "NCLB is not about helping kids; it's about labeling schools, and sanctions and consequences, not . . . about improvement."