In 2002, President Bush enacted the Bill on Education known to many as the "No Child Left Behind" policy (NCLB). Following the suit of the federal statute, the Chancellor of the Department of Education in New York City also enacted a set of regulations called the "Children First Reform Agenda" ("Children First") to improve the New York City school system. The actual implementation of the federal bill and state regulations brings up the question of whether the measures do indeed help in improving the state's academic effectiveness or whether they actually exacerbate existing problems. There is also the issue of whether individual citizens are able to enforce NCLB through the courts.
School A is a public elementary school located in Harlem in New York City. The demographics of the student body at School A are predominantly low-income and African American. 65% of the students in School A scored below the required NCLB standard on their Math and English proficiency exam. Many of the students who scored below the required standard on their exams have severe difficulty grasping even the most basic grammar rules. As a result of the test results, School A has been deemed "needing improvement." In fact, all of the public elementary schools in School A's school district have been put in the category of "needing improvement" and are overcrowded. This is the third year that School A and the other schools in its district have failed to meet the requisite standard.
School B, although not in the same district as School A, is the next nearest public elementary school that was not deemed "needing improvement." School B is predominantly white. A majority of the minority students in School B had scored at or above the requisite standard on their exam. However, School B is already overcrowded by 150 students, and the funding that it receives barely covers even its most basic functions.
Parents of students from School A's school di...