For the week of June 25 - July 1, 2003

Schools in a pickle

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The No Child Left Behind law signed in 2002 is threatening to leave lots of kids without teachers.

The law also makes it obvious that federal lawmakers need to get out of the Beltway more often, places they can’t reach traveling hub-to-hub by air.

President George W. Bush touted the new law as a way to force states and local school boards to improve the quality of the nation’s education. Yet, it’s left states with rural schools in a pickle.

The new law will deprive Idaho of $440 million if its teachers do not meet federal standards by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. That’s a big chunk of change in a state where the blood shed on the floor of the Capitol during budget debates is still wet.

The law could also leave the state with fewer teachers and rural districts with crushing expenses. Idaho could lose 600 teachers if standards are enforced—a hard loss in a state that struggles to recruit enough teachers in rural areas.

The standards call for teachers in core subjects to have a bachelor’s degree in each subject they teach.

The law also contains a school choice provision that requires that students in schools with low test scores be allowed to transfer to schools with higher test scores—at the district’s expense.

In big cities with a large pool of certified teachers and multiple schools, the standards make sense. In thousands of rural communities across the nation, the standards are unworkable.

Rural towns, including many in Idaho, find it difficult to recruit teachers—any teachers. Consequently, teachers in rural districts commonly teach across disciplines. For example, a single teacher with a degree in biology may teach chemistry, physics and earth sciences as well.

Under the law, this teacher would have to have a degree in all of the disciplines or risk losing their job. The kicker? Many rural teachers are paid so little they can’t afford the additional education—or the time off necessary to complete it.

Alaska’s representatives point out that to transfer a student from an under-performing rural school in their state to a school with a better performance rating could require a district to foot the bill for daily plane flights from backcountry areas with difficult conditions.

The law would leave thousands of rural children with fewer and poorer educational options than they have now.

The president and federal lawmakers put rural schools into this pickle; they must get them out—and fast.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.