Underfunding No Child

A post from our Nathan D. Wilson that didn't make it online for some oddball computer reason:

The Bush Administration's Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, thinks states ought to quit whining about not receiving the funding they were promised to implement the No Child Left Behind Act. According to Spellings, such states just fear seeing their own test results and so are trying to divert attention.

Her remarks came in a speech Wednesday to the Atlanta Press Club when she was asked about a lawsuit filed by Connecticut on Monday claiming that the federal government has not provided enough money to pay for the testing and programs associated with the 2001 law.

My state of Kentucky did not get $123 million in public school funding last year promised by Congress and the President, including $81 million for extra academic support for low-income students, $10 million for critical after-school programs, and $5 million to raise teacher quality.

That seems like real money to me. And real money is needed to enforce real changes in teaching and testing. But maybe I'm just whining.

The full AP story is here.