NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Connecticut's NAACP sides with the Bush administration in efforts to throw out the state's challenge of No Child Left Behind funding, a report said Tuesday. The civil rights organization and three students filed a motion Monday to intervene in the case in which the state argues the Department of Education has not sent Connecticut enough money to comply with the federal law."It's a rather unusual alignment," NAACP lawyer John Brittain told The New York Times. "It certainly creates some different alliances in civil rights." The NAACP motion argues the suit is a waste of money that could be better used to reduce gaps between poor and wealthy and minority and white students.
CivilRights.Org has more:
The NAACP and the group of minority schoolchildren want to block the state from creating a legal defense that allows them to avoid the obligations of No Child Left Behind on the grounds that the requirements are an "unfunded mandate." Such a claim, if supported, could threaten the enforcement of many civil rights statutes.Under the rules of federal procedure, the NAACP must join the lawsuit as a defendant in intervention on the side of the U.S. Department of Education. This unusual alignment for the civil rights organization, however, does not represent full support of the No Child Left Behind Act. The group's position questions the reasoning behind the proposed suit, calling it an excuse to not meet the needs of Connecticut's children of color. Specifically, the NAACP feels that rather than filing a frivolous lawsuit against the federal government, the richest state in the nation should be working to help the poorest children have the maximum capacity to succeed with qualified teachers and other resources.
Connecticut currently has the worst gap in achievement between poor and non-poor children, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Posted by kswygert at February 1, 2006 06:03 AM