NCLB Funding

States Support NEA Lawsuit

Six states and the District of Columbia, the governor of Pennsylvania, school administrators, and a coalition of California elected officials and community activists have filed legal briefs in support of NEA’s legal challenge to unfunded federal mandates in the No Child Left Behind law. The amicus brief filing by Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin says the states “respectfully disagreed” with a U.S. District Court judge who dismissed NEA’s lawsuit in November. The Association and the other plaintiffs have since filed an appeal. The suit argues that NCLB is unlawfully under-funded by more than $40 billion—in spite of wording in the law that makes clear its mandates will be fully paid for by the federal government. About 80 percent of districts say they have costs associated with the law not covered by federal funding, according to a report released in March by the Center on Education Policy. For more information, visit www.nea.org/lawsuit.