Here's an unintended consequence of a new federal law that targets "persistently dangerous schools": A principal expels a student who has committed a violent crime. He or she does so with the intent of making their school safer. Yet under the reporting requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, expelling too many students could render a school "unsafe," which could cause it to shut down if enough parents transfer their students out of the school.
Obviously, giving parents information about such schools helps them make better decisions about where to enroll their children. In many large cities with failing school systems, this would be a boon for parents. Yet, the information is only as good as the school district's own commitment to report its problems.
Some Utah school districts may exclude students from their neighborhood schools, but they are enrolled in diversion programs within the district. Thus, their violations aren't counted as expulsions. School districts that have no such programs could be unfairly impugned for taking an action they believe will make an individual school safer.
We hope state and federal officials can devise a means to ensure there is uniform reporting of these statistics. It will be a Herculean task.
Utah is fortunate on two fronts. Thus far, no Utah school meets the federal unsafe school standard, which is defined as a school that has expelled at least 3 percent of its students for criminal offenses in each of three consecutive years. Second, Utah parents who have concerns about school safety and educational performance can avail themselves of the state school choice law, which permits transfers to other schools under certain conditions.
In large cities with many failing schools and considerable levels of school violence, the No Child Left Behind law could have very positive impacts. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, secondary school students were victims of 1.9 million violent or theft crimes at school in 2000. Those students also were victims of about 128,000 serious violent crimes, such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault, while at school.
Parents of children in dangerous and low-achieving schools deserve accurate information so they can evaluate where their child might receive the optimal public school experience.
But the Bush administration and the states that are in process of implementing the No Child Left Behind law need to carefully consider the unintended consequences of penalizing schools that are taking steps to enhance school safety by removing violent students. The point of the law should be enhancing educational opportunities, not impugning schools attempting to deal with problem children.