Committee on Education and the Workforce

WASHINGTON – The House Education and the Workforce Committee today passed H.R. 2, the Student Results Act of 1999. The legislation renews Title I, the largest federal program to help educate disadvantaged children, as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The bill passed the committee 42-6.

"The Student Results Act is the single largest component of our overall strategy this Congress to improve elementary and secondary education in our country," said Rep. Bill Goodling, chairman of the House Education Committee. "This bill was put together with four main principles in mind: quality, accountability, choice, and flexibility."

"Decades of federal assistance has failed to build the necessary foundation to educate low-income and other special needs children to high standards," said Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE), chairman of the Early Childhood, Youth, and Families Subcommittee. "With today’s passage of H.R. 2, no longer will we allow low-performing schools to continue to fail our children."

The Student Results Act contains several provisions, including:

• Quality Instruction. One problem with Title I, Goodling said, is that the program was used as a "jobs program" for unqualified teacher aides, also known as paraprofessionals. H.R. 2 places a freeze on the number of teacher aides that can be hired with Title I funds. For those aides employed with such funds, the bill increases the minimum qualifications that must be met by all teacher aides within three years. The bill also ensures Title I teachers are more qualified and that parents are aware of the numbers of teachers and teacher aides that are hired with Title I funds.

• Public Choice. "For the first time, parents will have the option to participate in a viable public school choice option," Castle said. "The public choice provision is a simple concept:  Children should not be forced to attend failing schools." The bill allows children attending schools classified as low performing to be given the opportunity to attend a higher quality public school in their area.

• Academic Accountability. Modifies existing accountability standards to ensure that all students -- especially the most disadvantaged students -- show increased academic achievement at the school and state levels.

• Rewarding performance. The Student Results Act rewards excellence by giving states the option of setting aside up to 30 percent of all new Title I funding to provide cash rewards to schools that make substantial progress in closing achievement gaps between students.

• Improving Rural Schools. Under the Title I provisions, the bill gives rural schools unprecedented flexibility to consolidate Federal funds with provisions similar to the Academic Achievement for All Act (Straight A’s). Also under Title I, districts with less than 1,500 students will be exempted from several burdensome requirements, giving them the flexibility to target Federal funds to best meet school districts’ needs.

  In addition, H.R. 2 addresses the unique problems associated with educating non-Title I students in rural schools. Specifically, provisions address the different needs of small districts with less than 600 students and low-income districts with more than 20 percent of students living in poverty.

• School Report Cards. School districts receiving Title I funding will distribute information to parents and the public on the academic performance of each Title I school. If districts already provide report cards for their schools, Title I information can be included on those reports or provided by other means.

• Parental Consent for Bilingual Education. School officials would be required to seek the informed consent of parents prior to placement of their children in a native language instruction program for limited English proficient children funded under  Title I.

• Testing for Students in English Language. Students who have attended school in the United States for at least three consecutive years would be tested in reading and language arts in the English language.

• Research based approach. The legislation makes sure ESEA programs are based on current, scientifically based research available and not unproven fads.

The Students Results Act provides approximately $9.33 billion per year, with more than $8.3 billion going to Title I. The committee passage of H.R. 2 represents the third step in renewing ESEA. The first step was the Education Flexibility Act of 1998, which was signed into law. The second was the House passage of H.R. 1995, the Teacher Empowerment Act.

"Should Congress pass this bill, we will be sending a message to states, school districts, and schools: you must produce results, you must report your results, and you must improve program quality," Goodling said. "I urge the full House to support our efforts."

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