NEA and MEA to file suit on April 20 NCLB

On Wednesday, April 20, 2005, the NEA along with several school districts and state associations including the MEA, is filing a lawsuit to require the Bush Administration to fund the regulatory costs of the No Child Left Behind Act. The lawsuit will be filed in Detroit. The School District of the City of Pontiac is a leading plaintiff and the NEA press conference will be held at an elementary school in Pontiac. Lu Battaglieri (MEA President), Ana Sanchez (Pontiac EA president) and Art Pryzbylowicz (MEA General Counsel) will be participating in the press conference.

This is the first such lawsuit filed. More details can be found at the NEA website after 10:30 AM on Wednesday. (www.nea.org/lawsuit)

I will post more information as it becomes available. You need to be registered to access the site.

I was wondering when the lawsuits would start to be filed.

:kick: It's about time!

The plaintiffs are a variety of school districts, NEA and their affiliates in several states.
From Michael Moores site:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2314

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Defendant: Margaret Spellings, in her capacity as secretary of the Department of Education.

Key section of the law in question: Section 9527(a), which says nothing in the law authorizes the federal government to "mandate a state or subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act."

Claim: Spellings has violated the law and the U.S. Constitution by requiring school districts to comply with the law despite "multibillion dollar national funding shortfalls."

Remedy sought: A court order that states and school districts are not required to spend their own money to comply with the mandates of the federal law, and that the Education Department may not withhold federal money from states that refuse to comply on such grounds.

More information can be found here at the MEA website:
http://www.mea.org/
The suit is not asking the court to bring down the law, but require the Bush Administration to fund the cost of the No Child law’s regulations and prevent the U.S. Department of Education from denying federal funds to states and school districts that refuse to spend their own money to meet the law’s regulations.