Utterly Meaningless

There has never been a question that Congress has no constitutional authority to have any role in public education, and that NCLB compliance is a voluntary way to acquire federal funding. (Somebody might argue that there is an interstate commerce interest, but I don’t think it should wash.)
It is not necessarily true that no school or district can opt out. Utah has passed both a bill and a resolution calling for school districts to place a higher priority on state education initiatives before compliance with NCLB, and requiring the school/district to apply for a waiver when there is a conflict. If they can’t get a waiver, they are required to opt out. The amount of federal dollars is only a small portion of the state’s overall education budget ($107M out of $3B) (And Utah is dead last in per student ed funding.)

I’m glad the constitutionality of federal spending on public education is finally coming around. I don’t see how the states can accept the federal funds (somehow this part is constitutional?) and expect no federal oversight.

“An Illinois school district filed a lawsuit against the Education Department this month in federal court”

And I thought they were up to their ears in teaching to the test and unfunded mandates. Nice to know they have retainer money to spend.

I should have written “no school district can afford to opt out.” It’s entirely legal to give up the Title I money in exchange for NCLB-freedom. Just that nobody’s done it yet.

This highlights one of my biggest grievances with the bloated federal government. They overtax us and then send the money back to the states as a bribe, er incentive, in order to get what they want. How much easier it would be if they let the states tax themselves and spend the money where the citizens want it spent. Of course, that would cut way too deeply into the federal bureaucracy.