I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3450

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to reduce 

class size through the use of fully qualified teachers, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 5, 2003

Mr. WU (for himself, Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Mr. MCDERMOTT, 

Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. MILLENDERMCDONALD, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr. 

FROST, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. 

BROWN of Ohio, Mr. STARK, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Mr. 

OWENS, and Mr. KUCINICH) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 

of 1965 to reduce class size through the use of fully 

qualified teachers, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. CLASS SIZE REDUCTION. 

4 Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

5 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) is amended by add6 ing at the end the following: 
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1 ‘‘PART E—CLASS SIZE REDUCTION 

2 ‘‘SEC. 5701. GRANT PROGRAM. 

3 ‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purposes of this section are—

4 ‘‘(1) to reduce class size through the use of 

5 fully qualified teachers; 

6 ‘‘(2) to assist States and local educational agen7 cies in recruiting, hiring, and training 100,000 

8 teachers in order to reduce class sizes nationally, in 

9 grades 1 through 3, to an average of 18 students 

10 per regular classroom; and 

11 ‘‘(3) to improve teaching in those grades so 

12 that all students can learn to read independently 

13 and well by the end of the 3d grade. 

14 ‘‘(b) ALLOTMENT TO STATES.—

15 ‘‘(1) RESERVATION.—From the amount made 

16 available to carry out this part for a fiscal year, the 

17 Secretary shall reserve not more than 1 percent for 

18 the Secretary of the Interior (on behalf of the Bu19 reau of Indian Affairs) and the outlying areas for 

20 activities carried out in accordance with this section. 

21 ‘‘(2) STATE ALLOTMENTS.—

22 ‘‘(A) HOLD HARMLESS.—

23 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to sub24 paragraph (B) and clause (ii), from the 

25 amount made available to carry out this 

26 part for a fiscal year and not reserved 
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1 under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 

2 allot to each State an amount equal to the 

3 amount that such State received for the 

4 preceding fiscal year under this section. 

5 ‘‘(ii) RATABLE REDUCTION.—If the 

6 amount made available to carry out this 

7 part for a fiscal year and not reserved 

8 under paragraph (1) is insufficient to pay 

9 the full amounts that all States are eligible 

10 to receive under clause (i) for such fiscal 

11 year, the Secretary shall ratably reduce 

12 such amounts for such fiscal year. 

13 ‘‘(B) ALLOTMENT OF ADDITIONAL

14 FUNDS.—

15 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 

16 (ii), for any fiscal year for which the 

17 amount made available to carry out this 

18 part and not reserved under paragraph (1) 

19 exceeds the amount made available to the 

20 States for the preceding year under the au21 thorities described in subparagraph (A)(i), 

22 the Secretary shall allot to each of those 

23 States the percentage of the excess amount 

24 that is the greater of—
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1 ‘‘(I) the percentage the State re2 ceived for the preceding fiscal year of 

3 the total amount made available to 

4 the States under section 1122; or 

5 ‘‘(II) the percentage so received 

6 of the total amount made available to 

7 the States under section 2111(b). 

8 ‘‘(ii) RATABLE REDUCTIONS.—If the 

9 excess amount for a fiscal year is insuffi10 cient to pay the full amounts that all 

11 States are eligible to receive under clause 

12 (i) for such fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

13 ratably reduce such amounts for such fis14 cal year. 

15 ‘‘(c) ALLOCATION TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN16 CIES.—

17 ‘‘(1) ALLOCATION.—Each State that receives 

18 funds under this section shall allocate 100 percent 

19 of those funds to local educational agencies, of 

20 which—

21 ‘‘(A) 80 percent shall be allocated to those 

22 local educational agencies in proportion to the 

23 number of children, age 5 through 17, from 

24 families with incomes below the poverty line (as 

25 defined by the Office of Management and
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1 Budget and revised annually in accordance with 

2 section 673(2) of the Community Services 

3 Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2))) applica4 ble to a family of the size involved, who reside 

5 in the school district served by that local edu6 cational agency for the most recent fiscal year 

7 for which satisfactory data are available, com8 pared to the number of those children who re9 side in the school districts served by all the 

10 local educational agencies in the State for that 

11 fiscal year; and 

12 ‘‘(B) 20 percent shall be allocated to those 

13 local educational agencies in accordance with 

14 the relative enrollments of children, age 5 

15 through 17, in public and private nonprofit ele16 mentary schools and secondary schools within 

17 the areas served by those agencies.

18 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraph 

19 (1) and subsection (d)(2)(B), if the award to a local 

20 educational agency under this section is less than 

21 the starting salary for a new fully qualified teacher 

22 for a school served by that agency, that agency may 

23 use funds made available under this section to—

24 ‘‘(A) help pay the salary of a full- or part25 time fully qualified teacher hired to reduce class 
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1 size, which may be done in combination with 

2 the expenditure of other Federal, State, or local 

3 funds; or 

4 ‘‘(B) pay for activities described in sub5 section (d)(2)(A)(iii) that may be related to 

6 teaching in smaller classes. 

7 ‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—

8 ‘‘(1) MANDATORY USES.—Each local edu9 cational agency that receives funds under this sec10 tion shall use those funds to carry out effective ap11 proaches to reducing class size through use of fully 

12 qualified teachers to improve educational achieve13 ment for both regular and special needs children, 

14 with particular consideration given to reducing class 

15 size in the early elementary grades for which some 

16 research has shown class size reduction is most ef17 fective. 

18 ‘‘(2) PERMISSIBLE USES.—

19 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each such local edu20 cational agency may use funds made available 

21 under this section for—

22 ‘‘(i) recruiting (including through the 

23 use of signing bonuses, and other financial 

24 incentives), hiring, and training fully quali25 fied regular and special education teachers 
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1 (which may include hiring special edu2 cation teachers to team-teach with regular 

3 teachers in classrooms that contain both 

4 children with disabilities and non-disabled 

5 children) and teachers of special needs 

6 children; 

7 ‘‘(ii) testing new teachers for aca8 demic content knowledge, and to meet 

9 State certification or licensing require10 ments that are consistent with title II of 

11 the Higher Education Act of 1965; and 

12 ‘‘(iii) providing professional develop13 ment (which may include such activities as 

14 promoting retention and mentoring) for 

15 teachers, including special education teach16 ers and teachers of special needs children, 

17 in order to meet the goal of ensuring that 

18 all teachers have the general knowledge, 

19 teaching skills, and subject matter knowl20 edge necessary to teach effectively in the 

21 content areas in which the teachers teach, 

22 consistent with title II of the Higher Edu23 cation Act of 1965. 

24 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON TESTING AND PRO25 FESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.—
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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Except as pro2 vided in clause (ii), a local educational 

3 agency may use not more than a total of 

4 25 percent of the funds received by the 

5 agency under this section for activities de6 scribed in clauses (ii) and (iii) of subpara7 graph (A). 

8 ‘‘(ii) SPECIAL RULE.—A local edu9 cational agency may use more than 25 per10 cent of the funds the agency receives under 

11 this section for activities described in sub12 paragraph (A)(iii) for the purpose of help13 ing teachers who are not yet fully qualified 

14 in attaining full qualification if 10 percent 

15 or more of the elementary school classes in 

16 a school are taught by individuals who are 

17 not fully qualified teachers or the State 

18 educational agency has waived State cer19 tification or licensing requirements for 10 

20 percent or more of such teachers. 

21 ‘‘(C) USE OF FUNDS BY AGENCIES THAT

22 HAVE REDUCED CLASS SIZE.—Notwithstanding 

23 subparagraph (B), a local educational agency 

24 that has already reduced class size in the early 

25 elementary grades to 18 or fewer children (or
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1 has already reduced class size to a State or 

2 local class size reduction goal that was in effect 

3 on November 28, 1999 if that goal is 20 or 

4 fewer children) may use funds received under 

5 this section—

6 ‘‘(i) to make further class size reduc7 tions in kindergarten through third grade; 

8 ‘‘(ii) to reduce class size in other 

9 grades; or 

10 ‘‘(iii) to carry out activities to improve 

11 teacher quality, including professional de12 velopment. 

13 ‘‘(3) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Each 

14 such agency shall use funds made available under 

15 this section only to supplement, and not to supplant, 

16 State and local funds that, in the absence of funds 

17 made available under this section, would otherwise 

18 be expended for activities described in this section. 

19 ‘‘(4) LIMITATION ON USE FOR SALARIES AND

20 BENEFITS.—

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

22 subparagraph (B), no funds made available 

23 under this section may be used to increase the 

24 salaries of, or provide benefits (other than par25 ticipation in professional development and en-
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1 richment programs) to, teachers who are not 

2 hired under this section. 

3 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—Funds made available 

4 under this section may be used to pay the sala5 ries of teachers hired under section 306 of the 

6 Department of Education Appropriations Act, 

7 2001. 

8 ‘‘(e) REPORTS.—

9 ‘‘(1) STATE ACTIVITIES.—Each State receiving 

10 funds under this section shall prepare and submit to 

11 the Secretary a biennial report on activities carried 

12 out in the State under this section that provides the 

13 information described in section 5122(a)(2) with re14 spect to the activities. 

15 ‘‘(2) PROGRESS CONCERNING CLASS SIZE AND

16 QUALIFIED TEACHERS.—Each State and local edu17 cational agency receiving funds under this section 

18 shall annually report to parents and the public, in 

19 numeric form as compared to the previous year, 

20 on—

21 ‘‘(A) the agency’s progress in reducing 

22 class size, and increasing the percentage of 

23 classes in core academic areas taught by fully 

24 qualified teachers; and 
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1 ‘‘(B) the impact that hiring additional fully 

2 qualified teachers and reducing class size, has 

3 had, if any, on increasing student academic 

4 achievement. 

5 ‘‘(3) NOTICE.—Each local educational agency 

6 that receives funds under this section shall provide 

7 to each individual parent of a child who attends a 

8 school in such local educational agency timely, writ9 ten notice if the child has been assigned or has been 

10 taught for 2 or more consecutive weeks by a sub11 stitute teacher, as defined by such local educational 

12 agency, or a teacher who is not fully qualified. 

13 ‘‘(f) PRIVATE SCHOOLS.—If a local educational agen14 cy uses funds made available under this section for profes15 sional development activities, the agency shall ensure the 

16 equitable participation of private nonprofit elementary 

17 schools and secondary schools in such activities in accord18 ance with section 5142. Section 5142 shall not apply to 

19 other activities carried out under this section. 

20 ‘‘(g) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—A local edu21 cational agency that receives funds under this section may 

22 use not more than 3 percent of such funds for local admin23 istrative costs. 

24 ‘‘(h) REQUEST FOR FUNDS.—Each local educational 

25 agency that desires to receive funds under this section 
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1 shall include in the application required under section 

2 6303 a description of the agency’s program to reduce class 

3 size by hiring additional fully qualified teachers. 

4 ‘‘(i) CERTIFICATION, LICENSING, AND COM5 PETENCY.—No funds made available under this section 

6 may be used to pay the salary of any teacher unless such 

7 teachers is fully qualified. 

8 ‘‘(j) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section—

9 ‘‘(1) the term ‘certified’ includes certification 

10 through State or local alternative routes; and 

11 ‘‘(2) the term ‘fully qualified’—

12 ‘‘(A) when used with respect to an elemen13 tary or secondary school teacher, means that 

14 the teacher has obtained certification or passed 

15 the State licensing exam and holds a license; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(B) when used with respect to—

18 ‘‘(i) an elementary school teacher, 

19 means that the teacher holds a bachelor’s 

20 degree and demonstrates general knowl21 edge, teaching skill, and subject matter 

22 knowledge required to teach at the elemen23 tary school level in the core academic sub24 jects; or 
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1 ‘‘(ii) a middle or secondary school 

2 teacher, means that the teacher holds a 

3 bachelor’s degree and demonstrates a high 

4 level of competency in all subject areas in 

5 which he or she teaches through—

6 ‘‘(I) a high level of performance 

7 on a rigorous academic subject area 

8 test; or 

9 ‘‘(II) completion of an academic 

10 major in each of the subject areas in 

11 which he or she provides instruction. 

12 ‘‘SEC. 5702. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

13 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

14 this part $2,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2004 and such 

15 sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2005 through 

16 2008.’’.

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