Looks like the Great State of Connecticut is mounting a challenge against the President’s No Child Left Behind Act. At the heart of their lawsuit is that the NCBL is an unfunded mandate placing undue burdens on the State to comply with federal standards.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who for months urged the state to settle its differences through negotiation, recently joined the chorus of state teachers, superintendents, lawmakers and parents voicing support for the lawsuit.

“We in Connecticut do a lot of testing already, far more than most other states. Our taxpayers are sagging under the crushing costs of local education. What we don’t need is a new laundry list of things to do ” with no new money to do them,” Rell said.

The federal government is providing Connecticut with $5.8 million this fiscal year to pay for the testing, Sternberg said. She estimates federal funds will fall $41.6 million short of paying for staffing, program development, standardized tests and other costs associated with implementing the law through 2008.

This isn’t anything new, States have long been complaining that the requirements they are faced with are under funded, let alone other objections on the law. It’s important though, as the article points out, that this is the State filing the law suit, not a union or interest group, but the actual government of Conneticut. We’ll be following this as more developments unfold.