| Third Congressional District,
Indiana 2352 Rayburn Building Washington,D.C. 20515 202-225-3915 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House of Representatives, with U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer's strong support, has approved a measure to reauthorize the Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which provides federal grants for poor and disadvantaged students. The House passed the measure, HR 2, by a vote of 358 to 67.
The measure includes two amendments written by Roemer. The first gives parents more choice on which public school their children attend. The second provides increased assistance to states and communities to help disadvantaged students.
"This is a bi-partisan measure that helps communities improve the education they can offer to disadvantaged students," said Roemer. "We want to allow schools the flexibility to best serve their students. School choice should help involve parents in their children's education. Public school choice programs can stimulate innovation for schools to work as partners with community organizations to provide new and more rigorous options for students."
The first Roemer provision, adopted by the Education Committee in early October, would establish demonstration programs to give parents greater choice on which public school their children attend. It would authorize $20 million in federal grants to fund between 20 and 75 projects for states and local school districts to promote quality public school choice programs.
Examples of what could be funded under the initiative include work-site schools, partnerships with colleges and universities, and intra- or inter-district choice. Last year, Roemer successfully increased the federal authorization for charter schools from $15 million to $100 million.
The second Roemer measure, adopted by the full House, would increase the authorization level for Title I funding by $1.5 billion to $9.85 billion annually. Title I funding is used for schools in high-poverty areas to help twelve million low-performing students. Schools could use the additional funding for many purposes, including hiring more teachers, for after school teaching, summer school, or computer-based instruction. The increased authorization level is close to the $10 billion authorization level expected to be approved by the Senate.