Governor denies charge
BILL LUCKETT Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Sunday, May 15, 2005 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Partisan politics fuel Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal's exploration of suing the federal government for inadequately funding the No Child Left Behind Act, state Republican Party Chairman Drake Hill has charged.
But Freudenthal said politics has nothing to do with it, which is why, before deciding whether to sue, he has asked school districts directly whether they have sufficient funding to carry out the act's mandates.
"My thought was, rather than assume that I know stuff that I don't know, why don't I go ask the people that are on the front line," he said.
Freudenthal sent a letter last month to all local school districts requesting information he could use to determine whether to join a lawsuit filed by the National Education Association or one being contemplated by the state of Connecticut over No Child Left Behind.
Hill said Freudenthal's actions are politically motivated.
"The Connecticut lawsuit is about an effort to thwart the president and vice president's agenda on education reform," Hill said. "Those opposing No Child Left Behind seek to have lawsuits act as poor substitutes for sound educational policy."
He said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has voiced opposition to the act, and other Democrats across the country have followed suit.
"This is part of … Howard Dean's line in avoiding accountability in education. Dean wants to filibuster learning. This kind of thinking has no place in Wyoming," Hill said.
Freudenthal said Hill's attack was all about politics and had no connection to whether school districts are getting the resources they need to meet the act's requirements.
"People ought to keep their own skirts out of the mud before they go around throwing mud at people," Freudenthal said.
When he first heard Hill's comments, "I thought, well, maybe Drake already knows everything, but I thought I ought to ask the people in the trenches what their view is," Freudenthal said. "There's nothing in (Hill's comments) that is really about whether we care what the districts or the superintendents have to say about education. This is all about politics."
He said he decided to ask the districts about funding for the act after the state had been asked if it would like to join in a lawsuit against the federal government.
Capital bureau reporter Bill Luckett can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at bill.luckett@casperstartribune.net.