Two approaches to school accountability

The complex law has sparked a backlash in schools across the nation. Teachers and some parents worry it is punishing schools, sometimes unfairly, instead of adequately funding reforms necessary to improve them. On the other hand, some conservatives say that education is a strictly local concern and that Washington belongs out of it.

Whoever sits in the White House for the next four years will have to navigate these currents - and set the tone for how this law is enforced, determining how much teeth it has: What constitutes acceptable state standards? How much flexibility will be granted in meeting federal requirements?

Bush supporters say that a Kerry presidency will not challenge the education establishment. Critics say that without the kind of overhaul that Kerry is proposing the NCLB law may collapse of its own weight. "President Bush does not seem to realize that there are serious problems in the NCLB Act," says Michael Rebell, executive director for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

"There is no way there will be a qualified teacher in every classroom by 2006 [an NCLB requirement] unless a very serious effort is made to raise teacher salaries and working conditions and, in return, higher levels of performance and being able to get rid of teachers who don't perform."

"Schools should be held accountable, but not punished," says Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, which represents many teachers. Where the NEA has been largely cut out of Bush's deliberations, Kerry "would treat us with more respect," he adds.

While the senator voted for the NCLB Act in 2001, Kerry says the law has since been underfunded by at least $27 billion. He calls for a $200 billion trust fund for education over the next 10 years. Kerry has also since has criticized the "one size fits all" approach of the new law and the danger of turning schools into "testing factories." He has not said how he would change its mandates. One likely target: the law's complicated formulas for schools to show "adequate yearly progress."

At the high school level, Kerry proposes breaking up troubled large high schools, developing a more rigorous curriculum, and requiring more uniform and accurate data on dropout rates. He calls for increasing teacher salaries by some $9 billion, especially in hard-to-staff subjects and schools. Early in the campaign, he also proposed linking teacher bonuses to gains in student achievement, an idea the NEA opposes. Unlike Bush, Kerry has not endorsed school vouchers or aid to private or parochial schools.

Bush says in a second term he would boost funding for the nation's low-performing high schools, but expect higher student achievement as a result. He also aims to require all states to develop rigorous annual tests for high school students, including exit exams. Under Bush, federal funding for K-12 education is up 49 percent.

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