Idaho: We Squeeze a Nickel ’til the Buffalo Poops.

From the December 19th Education Week:

Ninth graders will no longer take the Idaho Standard Achievement Tests because the state board of education can’t cover the costs, the board announced last week.

High school students must pass the 10th grade version of the test before they may graduate, and the standardized tests are used to determine if schools are succeeding under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But state board members said the 9th grade version had to be axed because with a price tag of about $1.1 million, it was too expensive and the board had to balance its budget.

It would be interesting to see a study that laid out what it costs each state to administer the testing required under NCLB. The last number I saw for Washington was around $200 million; imagine what a place like California or Texas must cost.