When it comes to education funding, Connecticut is trying to have their cake and eat it too. They are suing the federal government over enforcement of the No Child Left Behind Act. They claim that they should not be bound by the education standards imposed by the Act.

The lawsuit argues that No Child Left Behind is illegal because it requires expensive standardized tests and other school programs that the government doesn't pay for. It asks a federal judge to declare that state and local money cannot be used to meet the law's goals...

The federal government is providing Connecticut with $5.8 million this fiscal year to pay for the testing, [Education Commissioner Betty 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.

Of course Connecticut isn't really obligated to meet federal standards. They can opt out of federal education funding and not be bothered by NCLB at all. What they are doing is gambling that they can get an activist court to tell the government that they must provide federal funding to Connecticut but cannot hold them to any federal standards.

According to the Cato Institute, Connecticut received over $100 Million [PDF] in Title 1 grants in 2002. And that doesn't include the huge budget increases of the last few years.

Imagine suing your employer for allocating your budget and then having the nerve to hold you accountable for how the money was spent. Perhaps the Fed should get out of the education business altogether. It is, after all, a local function. Maybe they should just tell the states they're on their own and cut the federal education budget to zero. I think I could live with that.