By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The U.S. secretary of education on Tuesday vigorously defended President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, despite rising criticism from school districts struggling to pay for the law's demands and meet its expectations.

Rod Paige, who was superintendent of the Houston Independent School District before taking the country's top education spot, said he understands districts' concerns, but they have to begin showing results.

"The arguments ... seem to be based on this premise that everything is OK," Paige said. "Everything is not OK."

Paige made the remarks during an editorial board meeting at the Enquirer before heading to Hamilton to dedicate a statue commemorating Hamilton High School as the site where President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. Paige and U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, the bill's chief architect, spoke before a crowd of more than 400.

Their visit came as school districts are growing increasingly vocal over what they see as the inflexibility of the law.

The bill requires school districts to close the achievement gap among students, overhaul low-performing schools and place "highly qualified" teachers in every classroom. Schools that don't improve suffer sanctions, such as removal of key school staff, or turning the school into a charter school.

Deloris Rome Hudson, president of the Hamilton Classroom Teachers Association, said districts and teachers cannot comply with the law without proper funding.

"The OEA and NEA (Ohio Education Association and National Education Association) look at the bill as being under-funded by about $1.5 billion," said Hudson, who attended the statue's dedication.

For example, she said, the law doesn't specifically fund the courses teachers must take to become "highly qualified."

"We have grave concerns about the bill the way it is written," she said.

David Horine, superintendent of Mount Healthy school district, said the requirement to improve student test results necessitates providing resources and materials beyond what the law requires and funds.

School districts in Ohio, which are also struggling with funding, have cited the added costs of No Child Left Behind as a reason for their financial strain.

The projected costs to implement No Child Left Behind in Ohio are $1.4 billion annually, but the federal government is only funding an additional $44 million, according to a December 2003 report to the Ohio Department of Education.

Boehner called the study flawed in part because Ohio never demanded proficiency for all students. He said Ohio's standards prior to No Child Left Behind called for 75 percent of kids to meet proficiency on state tests, while the federal legislation calls for 100 percent. The federal government will kick in more than $600 million for Ohio to implement the reforms in 2005, the Department of Education says, provided President Bush's 2005 budget is approved.

Some school districts also have complained about provisions of the law, such as the requirement to allow parents to pull their kids out of persistently low-performing schools. The law requires those students be placed in a better school with the school district providing transportation.

Jo Anne Friedmann, Cincinnati Public Schools' compliance officer for federal programs, said the school choice option isn't the best way to improve education.

"Anytime a child moves from school to school for whatever reason, they lose out academically," she said.

"There are other things that we could do with our money to strengthen programs than be required to spend a percentage of it on transporting kids."

Of the thousands of Cincinnati school children in federally designated low-performing schools, 54 opted to move out of those schools last year.

Boehner said the choice option has not worked as well as the bill's authors had hoped in some districts. Because of that, legislators have considered requiring tutoring services for children earlier than now required under the law.

Boehner and Paige were passionate that the law is helping to improve education for kids by holding schools accountable.

"Every time we've shrunk from the fight over the last 20 years, the same people lost every single time - poor kids in America," Boehner said.

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com