CNN.com That Illustrates Tension Between

¶ … CNN.com that illustrates tension between the states and federal government over this issue of public policy. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) leaves state governments and school districts in peril of losing funding if their students do not perform scholastically. This creates tension between states and the federal government, and also creates a drastic situation in some school districts, as this article clearly indicates.

This article discusses a high school principal in Southern California, named Esther Jones, who was worried about losing federal funding because over 90 seniors were failing their classes. She circulated a memo to her teachers asking them to rethink their grades, due to the possible loss of federal NCLB funds. She wrote, "please review your records for these students and determine if they would merit a grade of 'D' instead of a failure" ("Principal Urges"). This article indicates how frightened school officials are that they will lose necessary federal funding, and shows what lengths they will go to in order to hold on to that funding. Thus, the Act creates tension in school districts, and in the states that fund them between the local and federal governments.

The U.S. Department of Education's (DE) position follows that of the government that enacted the law. The DE Web site notes that states have "more freedom" with the act, because they have the freedom to use federal funding any way they see fit. The site notes, "Under No Child Left Behind, states and school districts have unprecedented flexibility in how they use federal education funds, in exchange for greater accountability for results" (Editors). It almost seems as if the government Web site is discussing a different policy than the one the principal was writing about. The federal government argues schools have a better quality of education with NCLB, and districts can hire more qualified people by using the funds as they choose, while school districts with a poorer education rate argue losing funds and wallowing deeper in a poor educational experience for their students results in fewer qualified teachers and a poorer overall experience because of lack of funds, rather than more funds they can use as they choose.

It is clear that these two government agencies, one local school district, and the other the federal government, are at odds because of the results of NCLB on school districts who cannot measure up to the government's standards. The testing process for NCLB has come under fire from some districts, and the desperation the principal feels is clear in her memo. The school district where she is employed said the memo was uncalled for, and that her high school did indeed have a high enough percentage of graduates, so it would not face a loss of funds. The principal may be disciplined because of her memo. While it may not have been necessary, it clearly points out the crisis that many school districts feel they are facing.