Union, 9 School Districts Sue Over ‘No Child Left Behind’

The nation’s largest teachers union and school districts in three states sued the Bush administration Wednesday over the No Child Left Behind law, aiming to free schools from complying with any part not paid for by the federal government.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for eastern Michigan, is the first major challenge to President Bush’s signature education policy. The outcome would apply directly to the districts in the case, but it could affect how the law is enforced in schools across the country.

Leading the fight is the National Education Assn., a union of 2.7 million members and a political adversary of the administration.

The union mobilized its forces for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry in the 2004 presidential race, and its objections to Bush’s law prompted former Education Secretary Rod Paige to call the NEA a “terrorist organization.”

The other plaintiffs are nine school districts in Michigan, Vermont and Bush’s home state of Texas, plus 10 NEA chapters in those states and Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah. The NEA is paying for the lawsuit.

The law is widely considered the most significant federal education act in decades. It puts particular emphasis on ensuring that schools give attention to minorities and poor children who have long fallen behind on achievement.

The plaintiffs want a judge to order that states and schools don’t have to spend their own money to pay for the law’s expenses -- and order that the Education Department cannot yank federal money from a state or school that refuses to comply based on those grounds.