Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Luna says No Child Left Behind (aka Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP) is actually stopping states from improving student’s academic performance: “The law has become a stumbling block to continued improvement in raising student achievement.”

The main reason that AYP is a stumbling block is that states are required to pay for efforts to comply with higher standards set by the Federal program.  Luna officially told the U.S. Department of Education that Idaho will not comply with AYP standards, until it is revised to help states do so.  Idaho, among many other states, does not have the funding to meet AYP standards: “We don’t have the luxury of time and resources to continue on with the federal law that should have been rewritten four years ago.”

The problem is that Idaho’s education system is already lagging behind most of the United States, in performance and funding.  So even if AYP is revised it’s highly unlikely that Idaho can comply.