Union, States Wage Frontal Attack on NCLB

Pressure Rises: While Utah passes bill, NEA files suit, and Connecticut prepares to do same.
By Bess Keller and Joetta L. Sack
April 27, 2005

Widespread sniping at the Bush administration’s centerpiece education law escalated into a frontal attack last week as the nation’s largest teachers’ union and several school districts sued federal officials over the measure, just a day after the Utah legislature approved a bill challenging the reach of the law.

The National Education Association’s suit follows an announcement by the Connecticut attorney general this month that his state plans litigation similar to the union’s.

“It seems like there’s this mounting movement against the law,” said Perry Zirkel, a professor of education and law at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. “Two years ago, I thought [the Bush administration] was getting away with implementation of the law, because lots of states were backing down, but now with what’s happening, I’m not sure.”

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