A lawsuit against the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been dismissed, according to Education Week.
The court deadlocked on whether NCLB is an "unfunded mandate" which illegally requires school districts to spend their own money to comply with its provisions, according to the Education Report.
The case was filed by several school districts in Michigan, Texas and Vermont, with backing from the National Education Association (NEA).
After 10 months of deliberation, the 16 judges making up the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit were unable to reach a majority decision in Pontiac School District v. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.
This deadlock means that a lower court ruling to dismiss the case stands, although the NEA could appeal.
Eight judges agreed at least in part that school districts could not be required to spend local funds to comply with the law. Five judges said that the law clearly outlines the tradeoff between accepting federal money and mandated academic progress. Three judges refused to issue an opinion on the merits of the case stating that states and not school districts, were the proper plaintiffs.
For more information, see:
Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of NCLB Suit
Pontiac in Court to Challenge No Child Left Behind Requirements
Michigan schools in NCLB lawsuit
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Comments
NCLB is the dumbest thing American schools ever did. While US education continues to decline, the rest of the world is leaving America far far behind.
obviously those school children who are left behind are now serving life sentences at San Quentin. school wouldn't be real school unless some unfortunates didn't make it. or maybe they were fortunate enough in later life to be taken care of by state, city, fed facilities.
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