Posted on 09/04/2004 8:25:14 PM PDT by Dubya
AUSTIN, Texas - The U.S. Department of Education may withhold as much as $7 million from President Bush's home state for failing to tell parents whether schools performed up to standards under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Parents won't be able to request transfers to move their children from poorly performing schools until the information is released, and the funding may be withheld until then.
"The law states we're supposed to announce the results before school started and we did not make that deadline," Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, told the San Antonio Express-News for its Saturday editions.
State education officials said they may not have final results until February.
Ratcliffe said the school report cards were delayed because federal education officials did not approve the state's plan for assessing progress until the end of July. Much of Texas' plan was scrapped because it didn't meet the law's requirements.
Under Bush's No Child Left Behind act, schools must demonstrate year-to-year progress. Students at schools that miss performance benchmarks two years in a row are eligible to transfer to a different school.
State education officials planned to release preliminary data to schools on Nov. 15 and the final list of failing schools on Feb. 23.
U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman D.J. Nordquist said that's not good enough.
"It won't be February," she said. "We've been working with people at the Texas Education Agency and those results will be released before that."
Ratcliffe said talks with federal officials are continuing and state educators hope for a compromise. But state officials say the money the federal government may withhold won't affect programs at the school or district level.
Some red-taper screws up in Texas and it's a national story about Bush.
I believe this story is about the people who run Texas, not President Bush.
Anybody know what section of the US Constitution authorizes Congress to fund state education?
I didn't think so.
It's the same section that provides for variuos welfare programs, FEMA, etc., in other words, like you say, it's not there.
That ain't the way the msm will spin it.
It's the losers at TEA who messed things up. Their incompetence is what caused Bush to start his education crusade to begin with. AP again.
Hey dumb*ss; either the kids are cutting it or they're not. Here's a clue....if they weren't cutting it last year, chances are they're not gonna cut it this year either. If not, announce it. Won't cost you a dime to say so. Then next year, maybe you'll do a better job. It's called education....and it's what you're paid to do. It must come as a shock to realize that you're actually supposed to do something besides collect taxpayer money and sit back and tell other people how to raise their kids.
I sure Gov. Perry reads your post.
As far as I know, Kerry can't straighten anything out.
$7 million STATEWIDE? What does that amount to per school? $100?
I don't know.
they = the
About. An utterly trivial amount given the number of students in the state. We're talking what, a buck or two per student?
Private schools wouldn't screw up like that.
This is just one reason I will not vote for any increases in funds to our school system here in Texas! They keeping asking for more money, more money! But never have any increases of education in the school system! But you always here ans see in out huge school systems of the upper higer regiment getting pay increses. You even here in Houston Independant School District of purchasing very expensive pieces of land, and not even building on it! Also time and time again, of corruption in the upper management of H.I.S.D all the time!
We sure need a whole new school system. I don't see any reason for more taxes. I do see a large reason for better management of our tax money.
What you said!
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