Kleczka's Korner
A weekly update for Wisconsin's Fourth Congressional District

Congress’s Commitment to a Quality Public Education

By Congressman Jerry Kleczka

Three decades ago, Congress passed the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the most sweeping piece of legislation ever passed geared towards improving education for America’s students in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12).  Since then, this law has been periodically reauthorized, which gives Congress the opportunity to take stock of the progress of K-12 education during previous years, and make changes to better address student and school needs.

Earlier this year, Congress began work on the most recent bill to reauthorize ESEA.  Working together, Democrats and Republicans carefully crafted a bill to reflect the needs of 21st Century education, with special attention paid to students in impoverished or low-performing schools, programs to allow for better resources and training of our teachers, and measures to ensure better accountability from our schools.  Earlier this month, after nearly a year of bipartisan work, the final version of ESEA legislation came before Congress, which will help communities in a number of ways to better educate our children.

Title I grants are intended to improve the academic performance of students in economically disadvantaged school districts through programs tailored to meet different educational needs.  Title I funds are used for a wide array of activities, such as improving critical early reading skills, addressing the needs of neglected children, and providing supplemental instruction services.  The bipartisan bill that came before Congress increases funding for Title I by 57% over last year, for a total of $13.5 billion for the present year.  Even more importantly, this level of funding will rise over the next five years to $25 billion in 2006.  This is a tremendous step forward, and will go a long way to providing the necessary tools to improve the quality of education as well as student performance in underprivileged areas.

Teachers must have adequate resources and training to ensure that they can deliver the very best instruction to our children.  The ESEA bill establishes a new state grant program for professional development and teacher recruitment, and authorizes $3.2 billion in funding for this year.  And since studies have shown than U.S. students have particular difficulty with the sciences and math, the bill focuses efforts on improving the quality of teaching that students receive in those subjects.  Specifically, the bill also authorizes $450 million for the Math and Science Partnership program, which will provide grants to states and local institutions to provide career development and professional development workshops and training for those instructors.

Many parents are concerned about the quality of their children’s schools, but it can be difficult to find an appropriate yardstick to measure their school against others to gain some insight as to how well their school performs.  This bill will require state, school district, and individual school “report cards” for parents and the public on school performance and teacher education.  These report cards will provide parents with information on the number of qualified teachers, dropout rates, and overall student performance.

This legislation also increases funding for an initiative in which local communities partner with the federal government to provide after-school learning opportunities and a safe haven for kids before their parents get home from work.  Many Milwaukee area students have benefited from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which keep school doors open, after classes are done, for extra help, enrichment opportunities, mentoring in basic skills, and drug and violence prevention counseling.  The ESEA bill will allow even more communities to participate by increasing the funding level by almost $400 million this year.

As a nation, we owe a quality public education to our children.  In this new century, education will play a bigger role in an individual’s success than ever before, and the federal government has to do its part to help schools and communities across the country prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s leaders.