Goodling Introduces Last ESEA Piece:
Education OPTIONS
Education Opportunities to
Protect and Invest in Our Nation’s Students
WASHINGTON – House Education and the Workforce Committee
Chairman Bill Goodling (R-PA) today introduced the last piece in the
House’s reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA). The bill Education OPTIONS (Opportunities to Protect and Invest in
Our Nation’s Students, H.R. 4141) would allow states and local school
districts unprecedented authority to transfer federal funds among programs
to better meet their needs.
“Today, I
introduced the Education
OPTIONS bill to begin the last component in the House in our two-year
reauthorization of ESEA,” Goodling said. “This bill makes significant
improvements in the remaining programs in ESEA, streamlines programs,
reduces bureaucracy, and increases dollars going to the classroom. We
continue our focus on quality, as well as local and parental empowerment.”
Education
OPTIONS includes a provision to allow states and local school districts to
transfer federal funds among major programs in order to better meet their
unique circumstances, including targeting students with the greatest
academic needs.
“I continue to
believe that state and local educational agencies, along with parents, are
in a better position than we are in Washington to determine how best to
use federal funds to help students improve their academic achievement,”
Goodling said. “Education OPTIONS puts the priority on children rather
than federal regulations.”
The legislation
includes programs for violence and drug abuse prevention, technology in
the classroom, charter schools, and a number of other smaller
authorizations. ESEA governs the bulk of the federal government’s
involvement in elementary and secondary education. Goodling began the
reauthorization process last year with the following components:
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Highlights of the bill follow.
Education OPTIONS
Opportunities to Protect and
Invest in Our Nation’s Students
The Education OPTIONS bill reauthorizes the remaining programs in the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and emphasizes Safe
Schools, Dollars to the Classroom, Technology to Enhance Academics,
Quality and Innovation, and Local and Parental Empowerment.
Safe Schools
- Continues support for keeping students safe and drug-free, including
enhanced after school programs.
- Strengthens emphasis on preventing drug use and violence among youth
and ensures that schools implement programs of proven effectiveness.
- Allows schools to target and tailor their activities to meet local
needs, including more flexibility to hire school counselors, install
metal detectors, and implement character education programs.
- Continues the Gun Free Schools Act, which requires that, in order to
receive federal funds, schools have a one-year expulsion policy for
students who bring firearms to school.
Dollars to the Classroom
- Increases dollars going to the classroom in various ESEA programs to
ensure that at least 95 percent of federal funding reaches students,
including 100 percent of any new Title VI monies.
- Allows states and local school districts to customize federal
programs to meet their unique circumstances, including transferring
funds to target students with the greatest academic needs.
- Allows local school districts to put children ahead of federal
regulations and allows use of other federal funds to supplement Title I,
the largest federal program for disadvantaged students.
- Continues strong support for public charter schools.
- Slashes paperwork requirements by allowing states to submit one
application for all major federal education programs, reducing
bureaucratic costs.
- Streamlines and consolidates programs.
Technology to Enhance Academics
- Promotes technology in education to improve students’ academic
achievement.
- Trains teachers to integrate technology into classroom lessons.
- Streamlines the current maze of federal technology programs and
enhances students’ computer literacy.
- Promotes state and local innovation in the use of technology.
Quality and Innovation
- Allows schools
to focus federal funds on where they are most needed locally.
- Expands allowable uses of Title VI funds to include public school
choice, teacher professional development, alternative education
programs, and community service.
- Creates Achievement Gap Reduction Awards to reward states that make
significant progress in eliminating achievement gaps by raising the
academic performance of the lowest performing students.
- Requires initiatives based on scientific research for Drug Free
Schools and other programs.
- Promotes excellence in education through charter schools.
Local and Parental Empowerment
- Explicitly
prohibits the development and implementation of a national test without
specific Congressional authorization.
- Prohibits the federal government from controlling, mandating, or
directing curriculum.
- Allows local school districts freedom to create and implement
character education programs.
- Ensures that voluntary prayer in public schools is protected.
- Provides resources to help protect children from access to adult and
inappropriate materials on the Internet.
- Prohibits ESEA funding of contraceptives and sex education in
schools, unless the programs are age appropriate and emphasize
abstinence.
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