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014 <br />RECOMMENDATION: The U.S Department of Education, in implementing the <br />professional development requirements of NCLB, should allow adequate time for <br />school personnel to comply. In addition, our U.S, Congress should provide <br />adequate federal funding to allow school systems to make improvements in this <br />area. <br />3. Funding <br />No Child Left Behind, as embraced by President George Bush and our <br />Congress, has brought with it a slight increase in federal education funding. <br />North Carolina's public schools are grateful for this increase, and we ask our <br />Congress to find the additional funds necessary to enable us to implement NCLB <br />as intended. Quite simply, the increase in federal funding is not sufficient to <br />cover the increased demands of the federal law. <br />According to research compiled by the American Association of School <br />Administrators (AASA), the change in aggregate K-12 funding as a result of the <br />first-year implementation of No Child Left Behind was an increase of $5 billion or <br />a 1.1 percent increase in overall K-12 funding nationwide. <br />AASA reports the following information on nationwide Title 1 basic <br />funding, which is the centerpiece of NCLB: <br />m $13.5 billion was authorized in Fiscal Year 2002, while the federal <br />budget allocated only $10.3 billion that year. <br />$16 billion was authorized in Fiscal Year 2003, but the federal budget <br />allocated only $11.6 billion; and <br />® $18.5 billion was authorized for Fiscal Year 2004, yet the federal <br />budget allocated only $12.3 billion. <br />The finance officers in our school systems have identified some key areas <br />of concern with federal funding for No Child Left Behind, as allocations currently <br />stand. We ask you to consider the following funding concerns, as the Fiscal Year <br />2005 federal budget is shaped and approved this year. <br />We expect a huge increase in transportation costs associated with <br />transporting students to their parents' school of choice, after a students current <br />school fails to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements for a second <br />year. In relation to that concern, we expect budget deficits in infrastructure and <br />physical plant costs, as some schools burst at the seams with an influx of new <br />students after second-year AYP assessments. <br />We have previously outlined concerns with the hurdles we expect in <br />helping our teacher assistants become highly qualified to meet new federal <br />requirements. We must reiterate here that the staff development costs <br />associated with helping to bring the 65 percent of our current teacher assistants <br />up to highly qualified standards could be exorbitant. In addition, North Carolina <br />9