Sixth Circuit Keeps NCLB Suit Alive (1/11/2008)

On Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit kept the National Education Association’s (NEA) lawsuit against the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) alive. By a two-to-one ruling, the court reversed the judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and remanded the case, School District of the City of Pontiac, et al. v. Secretary of the United States Dep’t of Educ., No. 05-2708 (6th Cir. January 7, 2008), back to district court for further proceedings.

The Court found that the District Court improperly dismissed the case for failure to state a claim. On appeal, the majority found that the Plaintiffs had stated a sufficient claim: that states are not liable for the costs of complying with mandates under NCLB in excess of the federal funding provided because 20 U.S.C. § 7907(a), the "Unfunded Mandates Provision" (UMA), is vague enough to violate the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution.

The requirement, cited by the District Court, states that “when Congress attaches conditions to a state’s acceptance of federal funds, the conditions must be set out unambiguously.” The Court, citing, in part, a 2003 memorandum prepared by Brustein & Manasevit for the National Conference of State Legislatures, found that the law’s unclear language may have led state officials to believe that the state was not liable for the costs of implementation not covered by the federal funding.

The lone judge in dissent was not convinced. He wrote that a trained state administrator would know that federal appropriations are subject to change from year to year. Therefore, the dissent determined, a reasonable state administrator would interpret the language to imply that the state would be responsible for complying with NCLB even if it received less than the full amount of funding authorized under the law. The law is an appropriate exercise of congressional authority under the Spending Clause because, in part, compliance has never been contingent on full federal funding.

The 6th Circuit, after finding that the Plaintiffs’ claim was valid under NCLB, reversed the District Court’s decision to dismiss the case and remanded the case back for further proceedings. A new trial date will now be set and the plaintiffs will get the opportunity to move forward with their law suit against the U.S. Department of Education.

Resource:
School District of the City of Pontiac v. Secretary of the United States Department of Education, No. 05-2708 (6th Cir. January 7, 2008), http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/08a0006p-06.pdf.
Authors: DAD, SAS