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When thousands of people donate no more than $100 per person per election, we can build a campaign without money from special interests. _______________________ But it's about more than money. We need your energy and your enthusiasm, too. Sign up to volunteer on Jim Hansen's campaign for Congress.
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| Allow states to opt out of No Child Left Behind |
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| posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 |
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As the new school year begins, Jim Hansen announced today that Idaho schools should be allowed to opt out of the misnamed federal mandate called “No Child Left Behind.” Hansen, a candidate for Idaho’s 2nd District seat in Congress, said the problems created by this law are especially hard on small school districts.
Hansen has talked this summer to hundreds of parents, teachers and school board members in the district’s 26 counties, where he has heard complaints about burdensome costs and administrative headaches.
“They were not asked by the incumbent Mike Simpson about the No Child Left Behind bill that he voted to impose on them. If they had been, there is no way he could have voted for it,” Hansen said. “Sadly, when congressmen are so focused on big money and insider deals in D.C., they ignore small communities, including their schools.”
Hansen, a Democrat, is limiting contributions to his campaign to just $100 per person, per election and is refusing to accept any funds from PACs (political action committees that dominate the funding of campaigns in Washington, D.C.). Instead, he is spending his time meeting with voters directly.
“Congress is gradually taking away the local control of schools from parents, teachers and school boards. Congress is leaving children, their families and their communities behind,” said Hansen, the father of two school-age children. “If Congress was paying attention to ordinary people, it would realize that states like Idaho already had good student performance standards.”
The unfunded federal mandate is forcing school boards to cut out other core programs, Hansen said.
“I have heard example after example in small towns all over Idaho,” Hansen said. “Incumbents in Congress don’t hear those stories.”
Hansen believes the law’s rigid one-size-fits-all approach does not reflect the real needs of Idaho kids.
“Its punitive mandates set up schools, teachers and communities to fail,” Hansen said. “That’s not the way to nurture our children and it’s not a proper use of our taxpayer money.”
Hansen said that states should be given the opportunity to opt out of the law’s stringent bureaucratic requirements without danger of losing funding. He said that during the term of his opponent —a four-term incumbent who sits on the House Appropriations Committee — funding for No Child Left Behind has fallen severely short of what states need to comply.
“The shortfall guarantees more so-called ‘failures’ while sticking state taxpayers with the bill,” Hansen said. Rigid rules and a bureaucratic system focused solely on standardized tests do not properly prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century, he said.
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