Among the people U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings met during her visit to Denver this week were 12 influential Hispanics known for their work in education and political circles.

I'm acquainted with several of them, and while I can't be certain of their party affiliation, I know at least half of those invited are liberals.

The group met at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, around a long conference table, where Spellings quickly got to the point: No Child Left Behind, the controversial education act, is up for reauthorization in September and a fight is brewing. The law, Spellings said, remains in effect until at least 2014, when all students are supposed to be reading and calculating math at grade level, but reauthorization presents the opportunity to tinker, to expand its authority or roll it back.

"The central piece of NCLB is accountability," Spellings told the group. "If we unwind around that, it all starts to drift away. There is a lot of pressure in Washington to do just that . . . We are right on track. The last thing we need to do is let up now."

So, how many of these influential Hispanics did Spellings have to persuade?

Not one.

Judging by the conversation, the group was with her before she opened her mouth, before she referred to the Hispanic dropout rate as a "silent epidemic." Before she started rattling off statistics: Only 2 percent of Hispanic students in Colorado completed a truly rigorous college prep curriculum; this state is losing $3.4 billion every year in earning potential due to its dropout rate. In fact, a few at the table argued that NCLB should be stronger. I've come to believe the Democratic Party leadership is generally out of tune with its minority constituency on this issue, so it was fascinating to hear Lawrence Hernandez, who disagrees with President Bush on, well, pretty much everything, say: "I don't think NCLB is doing enough. So many states are figuring out ways to game the federal government. My worry is that there is no enforcement."

Hernandez, founder of Cesar Chavez Academy, an acclaimed K-8 public charter school in Pueblo, told Spellings that after the official count day last year, 40 kids showed up at his door. Schools receive the money attached to each student if those students are present on count day. If, after that day, students leave, are kicked out, are "encouraged" to go to another school because, say, they are not likely to do well on the state standardized test, the money allocated to educate them stays with the school.

You could argue that this type of behavior is a consequence of bad legislation, that NCLB has distorted what has happened in classrooms, sacrificing a well-balanced curriculum in favor of reading and math drills. You could argue, and I have, that such heavy reliance upon a single standardized test score unfairly indicts schools that may actually be making progress.

But you'd be missing the reason most people at that table Monday spoke in favor of the act - despite its flaws. NCLB forced states to look at the progress of each group of students. Like our own CSAP, which preceded the federal act, it has offered a measuring stick independent of classroom grades, allowing parents to see and question how it is an A student still cannot read at grade level. It has made what was once a suspicion that low-income students (who tend to be minorities) have been, in fact, left behind a verifiable fact.

So, you argue, it's the parents' and the kids' fault. I repeat: It's more complicated than that. Poverty has many consequences, some easier to pinpoint than others.

We have operated in darkness. How dark? When Hernandez was working on his doctorate, he tried to get the 1980 dropout rate in Pueblo. No such data existed. He ended up going through yearbooks, using the neighborhood network, to find out who had graduated.

"We have been cheating these families by telling them everything is fine. And it's not," Hernandez said Monday. And he's right.

NCLB needs work. No one at the meeting, not even Spellings, denied that. Among the suggestions offered Monday: more money for early grades, more advanced placement classes, required parent-leadership classes, and the biggie, more help to struggling schools.

"We have accountability and that's undoubtedly important, but now what?" Denise Maes, an attorney and chair of the Hispanic Chamber Education Foundation, told me later. "My concern is that part of the accountability, by necessity, relies on punitive enforcement, and nobody is talking about that. Maybe this does go back to resources, to strong funding that says, 'You are not making the grade; here is how we can help you.' "

The day after the meeting, the state released its latest CSAP data showing that low-income students are generally scoring at least 30 points less than other students. The numbers also showed 81 percent of white third-graders are reading at grade level. Only half of Hispanic third-graders can say the same.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com