Bush Education Plan Goes to Congress

Part 2: Summary of President Bush's Education Bill

More of this Feature • 1: Education Bill Introduced in House • 3: Education Budget Summary Join the Discussion "What's your opinion of President Bush's national education package? Is he carrying through with his campaign promises?" Click Here to Discuss Education in America Related Resources • Education - The Debates • Troops to Teachers From Other Guides • Mark Twain on Education • State Education Departments Elsewhere on the Web • Dept of Education • Paige on No Child Left Behind (Testimony) • Statistics on US Education • No Child Left Behind • New Beginnings

A summary of the major components of H.R. 1, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 follows:

TESTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY

· Asks states and schools to begin annually testing public school students in reading and math every year in grades 3-8 through tests built on existing state tests or developed by the states within three years.

· Provides federal funds to assist states in developing their tests.

· Prohibits federally sponsored national testing.

· Allows states the flexibility of using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or another reliable sample of student achievement such as the Stanford 9 test or Iowa Test of Basic Skills as a means of confirming their state assessments.

FLEXIBILITY

· Provides unprecedented flexibility for states and local schools by consolidating federal education programs into six broad funding streams with general requirements on how the money may be spent to educate students and improve schools.

· Includes Straight A's as an option for all states, as proposed by the President in his "Charter State" proposal, giving states the option to implement reforms that work according to what they need. States would be required to sign a five-year performance agreement in exchange for flexibility.

READING AND LITERACY

· Encourages states to focus on effective, proven methods of scientific research to ensure that students learn to read by grade 3.

CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP

· Rewards states and schools for making progress in closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers.

· Provides emergency assistance to Title I schools identified by states as failing after one year.

· Creates a "safety valve" for disadvantaged students in Title I schools identified as failing to teach students after three consecutive years. Parents of children trapped in chronically failing schools would be able to use their share of federal Title I funds to transfer to a higher performing public or private school, or receive supplemental educational services from a provider of choice.

· Establishes an Educational Opportunity Fund to demonstrate and research the effectiveness of school choice programs in improving the academic performance of disadvantaged students.

SAFE SCHOOLS

· Requires states to allow for the transfer of students enrolled in persistently dangerous public schools (as defined by the state) to another public school or a private school, if no public school can accommodate the student.

· Combines the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act, and reauthorizes the Gun Free Schools Act.

· Allows local educational agencies to determine how to allocate funds for drug and violence prevention and before and after school activities.

TEACHER QUALITY AND CLASS SIZE REDUCTION

· Provides grants to states and schools to assist efforts to increase student achievement through such strategies as improving teacher quality and increasing the number of highly qualified teachers in the classroom.

· Consolidates and streamlines the Eisenhower Professional Development program and the Class Size Reduction program to provide states and local schools additional flexibility in the use of these funds in exchange for increased accountability for results.

· Prohibits mandatory national teacher test or certification.

· Provides immunity from federal liability for teachers, principals, local school board members, superintendents, and other education professionals who engage in reasonable actions to maintain school discipline.

BOOSTING LIMITED-ENGLISH PROFICIENT STUDENTS

· Reforms current law to focus existing programs on teaching English to limited English proficient children and expediting their transition to mainstream education classes.

· Requires parental consent before limited English proficient students can be placed in an instructional program that is not taught primarily in English.

OTHER KEY PROVISIONS

· Protects home schools.

· Eliminates Goals 2000 from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

· Repeals 16 unnecessary and/or duplicative programs.

[Source: House Education and the Workforce Committee]

Next page > Summary of Proposed Education Budget > Page 1, 2, 3

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