Senate OKs Suit Challenging

US Department Of Education

By Susan Haigh

Associated Press

HARTFORD — State lawmakers voted early Wednesday morning to authorize Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to sue the federal government in a challenge to the No Child Left Behind education law.

Votes in the House of Representatives and Senate were along party lines. Republicans questioned why Blumenthal, a Democrat, required the legislature’s authorization — particularly on the last day of the special legislative session.

The state Board of Education has not yet backed Blumenthal’s plans to sue the federal government. But some towns and education organizations are backing the potential lawsuit.

House Minority Leader Robert Ward, R-North Branford, tried to block the bill from being debated, saying it violated legislative rules.

“Here we are at nearly two in the morning because we’ve got to get the Attorney General a plaintiff,” he said. “I think this is a lot more about politics than it is about policy.”

Democrats said it makes sense for Connecticut to show a united front.

Blumenthal and others predict the federal act will impose approximately $440 million in unfunded education mandates on Connecticut cities and towns, and the state, by 2008.

“This is anything but window dressing,” said Senator Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of the education committee.

The legislation now heads to Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell. It was unclear whether she would sign it into law.

“She’ll give it consideration although she has said that the best way to resolve these issues is to keep negotiating and working with federal officials,” said Dennis Schain, Rell’s spokesman.

Connecticut has sought a waiver that would exempt it from expanding standardized testing to grades three, five and seven next year. Officials instead want to use a testing model they say would be more useful to teachers.

The US Department of Education has said it would hold off on a decision about the waiver, which has already been denied once. The federal agency also denied a state request to test students with disabilities at their ability levels rather than their grade levels.