Committee on Education and the Workforce

Final ESEA Bill Clears House Education Committee
Chairman Goodling Praises Approval of Education OPTIONS Act 

WASHINGTON – The final legislative piece to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) cleared the House Education and the Workforce Committee today.  The Education OPTIONS (Opportunities to Protect and Invest in Our Nation’s Students) Act would allow states and school districts unprecedented authority to transfer federal funds among programs to better meet their needs.  The legislation was approved by a 25-21 vote. 

            “From the beginning of the 106^th Congress, this committee’s main goal has been to reform federal education policy,” said Rep. Bill Goodling (R-PA), chairman of the committee.  “Committee passage of the Education OPTIONS Act begins the final process to renew ESEA and, most importantly, to make federal education spending more accountable, more flexible, and more useful to schools, parents, and children.  In other words, Education OPTIONS will allow us to give our nation’s children the best education possible.” 

            A major provision of Education OPTIONS (H.R. 4141) allows states and 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 states and schools, along with parents, are in a better position than 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 several other smaller programs.  ESEA governs the bulk of the federal government’s involvement in elementary and secondary education. 

            During debate, the committee accepted several amendments, including: 

·        Increasing from 30 percent to 35 percent the amount of funds that can be transferred among certain programs in ESEA without state permission.   

·        Requiring schools that receive ESEA funds to have a policy through which school personnel may discipline, including expulsion or suspension, a child with a disability who carries a weapon to school, possesses a weapon on school property, or brings a weapon to a school function. 

·        Requiring schools that receive money under ESEA to have a policy through which school personnel may discipline children with disabilities that engage in certain dangerous behaviors. 

·        Allows funding for schools to start or expand alternative education programs, such as in-school suspensions, Saturday school, and charter schools with an alternative education focus, for students that have been expelled or suspended. 

·        Prohibiting ESEA funds from being used to denigrate religious or moral beliefs of students, parents, or legal guardians who participate in drug and violence prevention activities or programs. 

·        Allowing money in ESEA to be used by agencies to incorporate mental health services in their drug and violence prevention programs. 

·        Giving private for-profit organizations and businesses an opportunity to participate in after-school programs using ESEA funds. 

·        Allowing schools to have programs that promote academic achievement under drug and violence prevention and education. 

·        Granting parents or legal guardians the chance to have their children opt-out of participation in non-academic programs at school. 

·        Awarding grants to nonprofit telecommunications entities to carry out programs to improve the teaching of core academic subjects and to assist school teachers in preparing students to achieve state content standards.  The amendment also allows the awarding of grants to local public telecommunications entities to develop, produce, and distribute educational video programming for use by schools. 

Goodling began the reauthorization process last year with Education Flexibility Partnership Act (signed into law as P.L. 106-25).  He then followed with the Teacher Empowerment Act, H.R. 1995 (passed the House); Student Results Act, H.R. 2 (passed the House); and the Academic Achievement for All Act, H.R. 2300 (passed the House).  The LIFT (Literacy Involves Families Together) Act, H.R. 3222, and Impact Aid, H.R. 3616, were approved last month in committee and are awaiting consideration by the full House. 

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 (A two-page description of Education OPTIONS follows.)

Education OPTIONS
Opportunities to Protect and Invest in Our Nation’s Students 

The Education OPTIONS Act 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.