Several moderate-income to affluent Chicago area school districts are weighing whether to reject Title I aid to avoid complying with No Child Left Behind. Two already have. One of the districts considering rejecting aid, Evanston Township High School, is headed by Allan Alson who is also active in the Minority Student Achievement Network.
One Chicago area superintendent speculated to Edu Commentary that Alson was setting himself up for charges of hypocrisy and acidly noted that while quibbling over $100K in federal aid for poor kids and the accompanying requirements these districts “will spend $2 million to light their athletic fields…”
Perhaps, but Edu Commentary can see the press playing the storyline either way. It could be portrayed as a pretty clear case of adults trying to make a political point at the expense of kids or as just another indication that NCLB is fatally flawed. Hopefully it won’t come to that in the first place. In any event, Edu Commentary can’t remember where we are in the press cycle just now, is NCLB good or bad at the present time?