States Stand to Lose Billions in Education Funding

I believe that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which had great potential to help our public schools, is failing because vital funding is being cut by the Bush Administration and the Majority in Congress.  This year alone, schools across the country stand to lose $16.4 billion, with New Jersey schools losing an estimated $343 million in funding. This may very well mean the elimination of reading and math tutoring, and after school programs that have made a significant difference in helping our students improve fundamental learning skills. 

As a member of the Congressional committee that oversees education policy, I am committed to providing NCLB the funding it needs to be fully implemented. We must also change the Education Department’s “one size fits all approach,” which simply does not work for many school districts.  Local communities know best how to run their school districts, and when successful, they should be left alone to continue to educate students as they have been.  That’s why I authored a plan that would give good performing schools much more flexibility to teach their students as they see fit.  The law was not intended to interfere with successful state standards, such as the ones we have in New Jersey.  My plan will help restore the original intention of NCLB, which was to provide poorly performing schools with the additional resources they need to help their students succeed and schools that perform well with additional resources to build on their successes. 

We can begin to reverse the poor record of the past several years simply by rolling back the Administration’s tax cuts for those earning over $300,000 a year, and providing that money to our children through additional school learning programs or enhanced professional development for teachers in math, science, and technology.  I will continue to fight to fully fund the No Child Left Behind law and to ensure that any federal requirements for our public schools are appropriate, and do not interfere with existing high state standards.

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