Last week, the Legislature got hit hard by the education lobby to repeal Act 82.  Republicans joined Democrats and Progressives to repeal it.  Wisely, Speaker Symington saw the political fallout that would come from her caucus members flip-flopping and took it off the floor.  But it seems she thinks that House Ed. will come up with a good alternative.  I have my doubts, because both “cost containment grants” and “excess spending penalties” have serious problems.

So what was the education lobby hitting legislators hard with?  Federal mandates.

Federal mandates in education exist to an extent, but they’re overstated, and they’re not that big a cost driver.  I’ll give an example.  NCLB hardly affects 9-12 senior high schools at all.  And yet Spaulding H.S. spent 27 percent more in the five years after NCLB was passed.  My own high school spent 33 percent more.  These were typical experiences for 9-12 senior high schools.

School administrators get a lot of mileage out of excuses like federal mandates.