GAO study looks at No Child Left Behind.

• Position: News & Numbers - Government Accountability Office

A statutory requirement known as a hold-harmless provision has limited the ability of some states to target the full 4 percent of Title I funds they are required to set aside for improvement of low-performing schools under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), according to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In addition to Title I funds, however, 38 states have dedicated other federal funds to school improvement, and 17 have contributed state funds, according to a GAO survey of state education officials.

The hold-harmless provision prevents states from reducing grants to districts below the previous year's level, thus protecting school districts from reductions in their Title I funding. As a result, however, since 2002, 22 states haven't had enough money after satisfying the provision to set aside their full portion of Title I school improvement funds. To address this situation, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed repealing the hold-harmless provision, although it is not known how a repeal would affect the districts protected by the provision.

In the 2006-2007 school year, more than 10,000 schools that had not met state...