I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 555

To require States to equalize funding for education throughout the State.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 3, 1999

Mr. FATTAH (for himself, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. BRADY of

Pennsylvania, Ms. LEE, Mr. MARTINEZ, and Mr. RUSH) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the

Workforce

A BILL

To require States to equalize funding for education

throughout the State.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Equal Protection

5 School Finance Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) There are systems of public school finance

9 within States which subject American children to
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1 educations of radically varying and grossly unequal

2 quality solely on the basis of where they live.

3 (2) Agreement with the unanimous Supreme

4 Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education

5 which stated: ‘‘In these days, it is doubtful that any

6 child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life

7 if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such

8 an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to

9 provide it, is a right which must be made available

10 to all on equal terms.’’.

11 (3) Education is a fundamental right under the

12 equal protection clause of the United States Con13 stitution.

14 (4) The provision of education to all children

15 within a State on an equal basis, including equality

16 of financial resources, is fundamental to the equal

17 protection of laws.

18 SEC. 3. EQUALIZATION SYSTEM.

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—No State shall be eligible for Fed20 eral funds administered by the Department of Education

21 to support elementary and secondary education unless the

22 coefficient of variation (referred to in this Act as ‘‘COV’’)

23 of per pupil expenditures in local educational agencies

24 statewide for elementary and secondary education in such

25 State is less than 10 percent.
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1 (b) CALCULATION.—The COV shall be calculated

2 based on intrastate expenditures for current operations,

3 as determined by the State, without regard to Federal con4 tributions.

5 (c) ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIONS.—

6 (1) SPECIAL PURPOSE.—Also excluded from the

7 COV calculation shall be capital expenditures and

8 special purpose funds without regard to source. Spe9 cial purpose funds are funds which are targeted to

10 address a specific need, such as the educationally

11 disadvantaged, handicapped, gifted, or language de12 ficient students.

13 (2) RESOURCES.—Nothing in this Act shall pre14 clude the State or the Federal Government from

15 providing additional resources to local educational

16 agencies to address such special needs.

17 (d) WAIVER.—The Secretary may provide funding for

18 elementary and secondary education to a State which has

19 not complied with the requirements of this section if the

20 State submits a plan for compliance which the Secretary

21 determines will bring the State into compliance not later

22 than 5 years after the date of submission of such plan.

23 SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE AND REPORTING.

24 (a) IN GENERAL.—
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1 (1) ANNUAL REPORT.—To be eligible to receive

2 Federal education funds, a State shall submit an an3 nual report to the Secretary which certifies that the

4 State has complied with the provisions of this Act.

5 (2) CERTIFICATIONS.—Such certifications are

6 due not later than January 1 of each fiscal year and

7 shall be accepted by the Secretary unless challenged

8 by 1 or more local educational agencies.

9 (b) CERTIFICATION CHALLENGE.—To challenge the

10 validity of a State’s compliance certification, local edu11 cational agencies that represent not less than 10 percent

12 of the students in such State must file a complaint with

13 the Secretary, not later than 90 days after the date on

14 which the certification is due.

15 (c) COMPLIANCE.—

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The failure of a State to

17 comply with the provisions of this Act shall result in

18 the loss of eligibility for Federal education funds

19 identified in section 3(a) beginning in the first fiscal

20 year after a finding of noncompliance by the Sec21 retary. Eligibility for such funds shall be restored at

22 the beginning of the next fiscal year in which the

23 Secretary finds the State to be in compliance.

24 (2) FEDERAL FUNDS.—The failure of a State

25 to comply with the provisions of this Act for a period
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1 that exceeds 5 years from the date of the enactment

2 of this Act or the submission of a plan under section

3 3(d), whichever is longer, shall lose all forms of Fed4 eral assistance beginning in the first fiscal year after

5 such 5-year period until the State complies with the

6 provisions of this Act.

7 (d) REDISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—Funds for elemen8 tary and secondary education that are not distributed to

9 a State as a result of applying subsection (c) shall be re10 allocated by the Secretary to other States that have com11 plied with the requirements of section 3, that are imple12 menting compliance plans, or are developing compliance

13 plans pursuant to section 3(d).

14 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

15 For purposes of this Act the following terms have the

16 following meanings:

17 (1) The term ‘‘coefficient of variation’’ means

18 the standard deviation of local educational agency

19 expenditures divided by the mean per student ex20 penditure, in which local educational agencies with

21 fewer than 250 students have been excluded.

22 (2) The term ‘‘local educational agency’’ has

23 the same meaning given such term in section

24 14101(18) of the Elementary and Secondary Edu25 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801(18)).
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1 (3) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

2 of Education.

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