USDE Has Fined 5 States for NCLB Noncompliance

As a followup to Tom Luce's claim over the weekend that the USDE had been enforcing NCLB vigorously, here is the list of states fined and the amounts involved according to USDE:

Georgia -- 25% withholding in 2003 ($783,327) for not completing high school tests as required. Minnesota -- 10% withholding in 2003 ($112,964) for failing to calculate high school AYP with the right indicators. Texas -- 4% withholding in 2004 ($444,282)* for making AYP decisions too late. DC - 25% in 2005 ($123,430) for not completing accountability agreements in time. Idaho -- 25% in 2006 ($103,981) for not completing accountability agreements in time.

At less than three quarters of a million (for Georgia), the dollar amounts aren't giant. And just two -- DC and Idaho -- take place over the past year and a half. But it's not nothing, and it may well be more than the USDE did during those loosey-goosey Clinton/IASA years.

*The USDE indicated that an additional 8% would be withheld in 2005 because of a different issue, but these funds were allowed to remain with Texas to help them respond to the students who entered their schools post-Katrina. All these withholding amounts are from the state's Title I, Part A administrative funds, which are limited to 1 percent of a state allocation.