Untitled Document

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

March 12, 2004

Contact: Sara Lang
Phone: (202) 225-4531

On NCLB, Etheridge Tells N.C. Educators Administration Must Keep Its Promises to Children, Schools, States

CHAPEL HILL - As states and schools across the country struggle with the strict new requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today spoke to North Carolina educators about the need to keep the heat on the Administration for full funding of the law. Etheridge spoke to the annual conference of the N.C. Association of School Administrators (NCASA) at their annual conference, "Spring Into Action for North Carolina's Public Schools."

"Accountability is a two way street; the Administration can talk the talk but now they have to walk the walk," Etheridge said. "We in North Carolina have nothing to fear from accountability. We have led the charge for accountability-based education reform and have made academic progress of historic proportions. Unfortunately for our schools, our children and our state, the current administration has failed to live up to its promises to fund No Child Left Behind. In North Carolina, we have set the standard for accountability in education; what we need now is accountability from the federal government."

President Bush recently submitted his budget to Congress for Fiscal Year 2005. This budget falls $9.4 Billion short of the funds promised for NCLB under the law, and for the first three years of the law's existence, the Administration has shorted America's schools $27 Billion. This budget cut means that 53,000 North Carolina children will be denied extra help with reading and math through Title I.

Etheridge spoke to the educators about his legislation, H.R. 2366, which would require Congress to provide full funding for NCLB each and every year that the program is in existence. Without full funding, the costs of implementation fall to states and local school districts. Recently, the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures projected that states will be forced to spend nearly $10 billion on implementation of NCLB in Fiscal Year 2004.