This op-ed by the Secretary's Regional Representative Hancock appeared in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal on January 22, 2007.

Your editorial last Wednesday calls for killing the No Child Left Behind Act. Just remember the baby you'd be throwing out with the bathwater: improving reading and math achievement, rising test scores and narrowing achievement gaps—not just in South Carolina but all across the country.

No Child Left Behind has lit a spark under schools, reminding them of their responsibility to educate all students, including those once left on the sidelines. Today all 50 states measure student progress against academic standards. They hold schools accountable for real and regular progress. And they disaggregate data by student group so teachers can see who needs help in time to make a difference. This was not the case five years ago.

No Child Left Behind calls for states to set academic standards. But it also offers new federal resources and unprecedented flexibility to invest in Palmetto State priorities. Would you throw away the 52 percent increase in federal education spending for South Carolina since 2001? Or the $62 million increase in Title I spending for the poorest children? Would you throw away the Reading First program and Striving Readers grants that are helping young students to read by grade three and helping struggling older students to regain lost ground?

No Child Left Behind is working—in South Carolina and across the nation. There's simply no reason to return to the old status quo—and few worries that we will.

S. Anne Hancock
Secretary's Regional Representative, Region IV
Atlanta, GA