In 2001, three days after taking office, President Bush proposed “No Child Left Behind”, thus expressing his strong support of the public schools in the United States. The question is, did he have the best interest of the students, teachers, and parents of this country in mind? 

In this school year alone, 1,591 DeKalb County students transferred schools, because their former school failed to make sufficient Adequate Yearly Progress. 

The number is over five times greater than the number of students that transferred last year, causing higher-performing schools to be literally inundated with new students. 

“We didn’t know we would be a part of the No Child Left Behind program, and we have had more transfers this past year,” said counseling secretary counseling office secretary Fran Dickey. 

Chamblee has taken on approximately 275 students over the course of the school year, including those students from Chamblee Middle. 80 of those students came from lower-performing schools. 

“The majority of the students came from Cross Keys and Clarkston, but mainly Cross Keys,” said Dickey. 

Cross Keys is one of the schools that did not meet AYP requirements. 

Luckily for Chamblee, the school is not facing many issues dealing with overcrowding. 

There is a slight strain on certain classes that have restrictions on the number of students allowed in them, and staff and administration additions have been made. 

However, if more schools fail to meet AYP requirements and more students opt to transfer, bigger problems could occur in the future.

Another and possibly larger threat is the number of students transferring into the middle schools. Chamblee Middle School received 152 new students this past year because of No Child Left Behind, a number that is only going to rise, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That strain on the middle school could possibly carry over to Chamblee High.