The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that, because Georgia is not administering end-of-course tests this year, it has the dubious honor of being the first state to have funding withheld for failure to comply with the 1994 amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Two years ago, the department granted Georgia a two-year extension to develop end-of-course tests with the understanding that they would be administered no later than June 30, 2003. Despite the impending deadline, state officials opted in March to delay test administration until 2004, violating their agreement with Washington. The 2001 reauthorization of ESEA, aqua No Child Left Behind, requires the department to withhold federal funding if states violate these timeline waivers or compliance agreements so, in a letter to Georgia school officials, Secretary Rod Paige said that the department would withhold 25 percent of the state's Title I administrative costs - more than $700,000. State school chief Kathy Cox insists that her office will contest Paige's decision, grumbling that Georgia's tests wouldn't have passed NCLB muster anyway.
"Feds yank funds over test delay," by James Salver, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 22, 2003