http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1164734191138720.xml&storylist=cleveland11/28/2006, 12:09 p.m. ET
By TERRY KINNEY
The Associated Press
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court panel was asked Tuesday to revive a lawsuit challenging the way government-mandated programs are funded.
The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, and school districts in Michigan, Vermont and Texas, had sued to block the No Child Left Behind law, President Bush's signature education policy.
Their suit, in which they argued that schools should not have to comply with requirements that were not paid for by the federal government, was dismissed in November 2005 by Chief U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman, based in Detroit.
Attorney Robert Chanin, representing the Pontiac, Mich., school district and the other plaintiffs, argued in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that states submitted compliance plans based on their understanding of the level of government support that would be provided. But Congress appropriated far less than needed, leaving local school districts to make up the difference, he said...