States Hard-Pressed to Set Aside Title I Aid for NCLB Help, Group Says

A majority of states won’t be able to put aside enough federal Title I funding to help schools struggling to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act in the 2007-08 school year, according to a report released today by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.

The 5½-year-old federal law requires states to reserve 4 percent of their Title I aid for grants to districts to help schools that continually fail to meet the law’s achievement targets. But the NCLB law also includes a “hold harmless” requirement for districts, meaning that no district may receive less Title I money than it did the previous year...