Struggle Of The Classes

Monday, Sep. 22, 2003 By PERRY BACON JR.

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PS/MS 279, a school in the Bronx, is on New York City's list of schools "in need of improvement." Only 19% of its students meet state standards in reading. So when Kenia Olivero heard that President Bush had signed an education law that promises students the right to transfer from failing schools, she began to investigate what she could do for her son Kendrick, who was behind in his reading skills. She discovered that fewer than one-third of the students who requested transfers from low-scoring New York City schools actually got them last year. The good schools just didn't have extra space. This year Olivero sent her only son to live with his uncle in suburban Greenwich, Conn., and attend school there. "I wish he could have stayed in the Bronx and just walked to school," Olivero says. "But there was nothing else I could do. The transfer system is hopeless."

When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002, he held an elaborate bill-signing ceremony in which he promised that his education reform would bring hope to kids like Kendrick. The law calls for states to test students in third to eighth grade each year in reading and math. In 53% of U.S. schools, which receive direct Federal Government funding because they have large numbers of low-income students, students can transfer to another school or receive free tutoring if their school fails for two years in a row to improve its test scores. Bush's education bill won bipartisan praise 20 months ago, but now Democrats and some congressional Republicans, state governments, school superintendents, principals and teachers are sharply attacking No Child Left Behind. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat who voted for the law, last week called for a suspension of the act's provisions until Bush provides more money for it.

The act is controversial for several reasons. It has labeled thousands of schools across the country unsuccessful--even though many of those schools are doing well by most measures. At the same time, it has not delivered on its promise to allow kids to transfer out of those schools. And it is costing states millions of dollars at a time when their budgets are tight. Yet the law is beginning to improve education for many students, and in most instances, its problems are the unforeseen consequences of well-intentioned regulations. "I think the intent is absolutely good, but did we think through all of the provisions?" says Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.