House Education Committee Passes President Bush’s
  No Child Left Behind Education Bill (H.R. 1)

H.R. 1 Gives Students a Chance, Parents a Choice, and America’s Schools a Charge to Be the Best in the World

            WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a dramatic victory for students and parents, the House Education and the Workforce Committee today gave bipartisan approval to H.R. 1, President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education plan.

            “H.R. 1 reflects President Bush’s education reform agenda to leave no child behind,” Boehner said. “It gives states and local school districts unprecedented flexibility while holding them accountable for closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. It empowers parents with information about the progress their children are making, the quality of the schools they’re attending, and the qualifications of the teachers who are teaching them. Most importantly, it gives parents an array of new options and provides a safety valve for disadvantaged children trapped in failing schools.”

            While noting the successful inclusion of a “safety valve” for students in failing schools that includes immediate public school choice and allows federal education dollars to flow to private, faith-based providers of supplemental educational services, Boehner vowed to continue the drive to extend the option of private school choice to children in failing schools when H.R. 1 reaches the House floor.

            “We’re taking some dramatic steps forward with H.R. 1. But we cannot rest until there is equal educational opportunity for all American children,” Boehner pledged. Boehner also said Republicans would move aggressively to pass an amendment on the floor to give states significant new flexibility in exchange for better results for students.

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Major Provisions: H.R. 1, the No Child Left Behind Act
As Approved by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce
May 9, 2001

· H.R. 1 includes President Bush’s rigorous plan for holding state and local school districts that use federal funds accountable for improving student achievement.

· The measure requires states and local schools to demonstrate results through annual reading and math assessments for students in grades three through eight. The plan authorizes $400 million to help states design the tests.

· H.R. 1 dramatically enhances flexibility for local school districts, giving them the freedom to transfer up to 50 percent of the federal education dollars they receive among an assortment of ESEA programs as long as they demonstrate results. Local school districts do not have to receive permission from the state or the U.S. Department of Education to transfer funds.

· This unprecedented new flexibility gives local school districts the freedom to target resources where they’re needed most -- from class size reduction to higher teacher salaries to technology in the classroom -- and address needs that often change from one year to the next, since these transfers are not permanent and must be made on an annual basis.

· The bill gives states and local schools additional flexibility to improve student performance by consolidating a host of duplicative programs to ensure that state and local officials can meet the unique needs of students.

· H.R. 1 requires states and school districts to prepare annual report cards on their schools to better inform parents about the quality of their child’s school.

· Moreover, it allows parents to remove their child from a low-performing school and send them to a different public school immediately after their school has been identified as failing.

· Before giving parents the option of sending their children to another school, H.R. 1 gives low-performing schools the chance to improve by offering them financial and other technical assistance to improve and increase student achievement.

· Immediate Public School Choice: If a school does not make adequate yearly progress after one year, the district must implement certain corrective actions to improve the school, such as replacing certain staff, as well as offer public school choice immediately to all students in the failing school.

· Supplementary Services: The measure allows parents to use Title I funds to provide supplementary educational services -- including tutoring, after school services, and summer school programs -- for their children. Parents will choose from a list of providers that meet certain criteria, including private faith-based providers.

· H.R. 1 prohibits federally sponsored national testing, federally controlled curriculum, as well as any mandatory national teacher test or certification.

· H.R. 1 focuses on effective, proven methods of reading instruction and triples federal literacy funding from the present $300 million to $900 million in 2002.

· The President would spend $5 billion over the next five years on reading programs for children between kindergarten and third grade.

· School districts will have the flexibility to use funds to reduce class sizes by recruiting, hiring, and training teachers, or on professional development.

· H.R. 1 authorizes the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act, and the Gun Free Schools Act -- which helps states and local school districts fund drug and violence prevention programs and before- and after-school activities.

· As part of the broad effort to make schools safer, H.R. 1 allows teachers to remove violent and persistently disruptive students from the classroom without fear of legal repercussions.

· H.R. 1 establishes the Math and Science Partnership program to provide grant funds for states to work in conjunction with institutions of higher education in strengthening K-12 math and science education.

· Partnerships will focus on strengthening math and science instruction in elementary and secondary schools and may include such activities as making math and science curricula more rigorous, improving professional development, and attracting math and science majors to teaching.

· The bill holds states and school districts accountable for ensuring that students are proficient in English after three years of attending school in the United States.

· It requires local educational agencies to obtain parental consent before placing children in an instructional program that is not taught primarily in English.

· Home schools are freed from federal regulations not only in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (H.R. 1) but also ALL programs administered through the U.S. Department of Education.
· The bill exempts all home schools and those private schools that do not use federal funds from all testing requirements referenced in H.R. 1.