I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 771 

To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the 

form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating 

to nutrition standards in schools. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 24, 2019 

Mr. KING of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary 

education in the form of vouchers for eligible students 

and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools. 

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

3 TITLE I—CHOICES IN 

4 EDUCATION ACT 

5 SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 

6 This title may be cited as the ‘‘Choices in Education 

7 Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 102. REPEAL OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDU2 CATION ACT AND LIMITATION ON SECRE3 TARIAL AUTHORITY. 

4 (a) REPEAL.—The Elementary and Secondary Edu5 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) is repealed. 

6 (b) LIMITATION ON SECRETARIAL AUTHORITY.—The 

7 authority of the Secretary under this title is limited to 

8 evaluating State applications under section 104 and mak9 ing payments to States under section 103. The Secretary 

10 shall not impose any further requirements on States with 

11 respect to elementary and secondary education beyond the 

12 requirements of this title. 

13 SEC. 103. BLOCK GRANTS TO STATES. 

14 (a) GRANTS TO STATES.—From amounts appro15 priated to carry out this title for a fiscal year, the Sec16 retary shall award grants (from allotments made under 

17 subsection (b)) to qualified States to enable such States 

18 to carry out an education voucher program under section 

19 105. 

20 (b) ALLOTMENT.—From amounts described in sub21 section (a) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall allot to 

22 each qualified State for that fiscal year an amount that 

23 bears the same ratio to those amounts as the number of 

24 eligible children in the qualified State (as determined by 

25 the Secretary on the basis of the most recent satisfactory 


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1 data) bears to the number of all eligible children in all 

2 States in such school year. 

3 (c) REALLOTMENT.—If a State does not receive 

4 funds under subsection (b) for a fiscal year, the Secretary 

5 shall allot the remainder of such funds to each qualified 

6 State in an amount that bears the same ratio to such re7 mainder for such year as the amount received under sub8 section (b) by such qualified State bears to the amount 

9 received under such subsection for such year by all quali10 fied States. 

11 (d) DEFICIT REDUCTION.—Any amounts remaining 

12 after allotments are made under subsection (c) for a fiscal 

13 year shall not be available for any purpose other than def14 icit reduction. 

15 SEC. 104. APPLICATION. 

16 (a) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 

17 under this title, a State shall submit an application to the 

18 Secretary that includes assurances that the State will— 

19 (1) comply with the requirements of section 

20 105; and 

21 (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible 

22 child to elect— 

23 (A) to enroll their child in any public or 

24 private elementary or secondary school in the 

25 State; or 


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1 (B) to home-school their child. 

2 (b) APPROVAL.—Not later than 30 days after receiv3 ing an application from a State that meets the require4 ments of subsection (a), the Secretary shall approve such 

5 application. 

6 SEC. 105. EDUCATION VOUCHER PROGRAM REQUIRE7 MENTS. 

8 (a) EDUCATION VOUCHER PROGRAM.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—The State shall distribute 

10 funds received under this title among the local edu11 cational agencies in the State based on the number 

12 of eligible children enrolled in the public schools op13 erated by each local educational agency and the 

14 number of eligible children within each local edu15 cational agency’s geographical area whose parents 

16 elect to send their child to a private school or to 

17 home-school their child. 

18 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 

19 Congress that States should distribute non-Federal 

20 funds for elementary and secondary education in a 

21 manner that promotes competition and choices in 

22 education. 

23 (b) IDENTIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE CHILDREN; ALLO24 CATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.— 

25 (1) IDENTIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE CHILDREN.— 


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1 (A) LEA IDENTIFICATION.—On an annual 

2 basis, on a date to be determined by the Sec3 retary, each local educational agency shall in4 form the State educational agency of— 

5 (i) the number of eligible children en6 rolled in public schools served by the local 

7 educational agency; and 

8 (ii) the number of eligible children 

9 within each local educational agency’s geo10 graphical area whose parents elect— 

11 (I) to send their child to a pri12 vate school; or 

13 (II) to home-school their child. 

14 (B) STATE IDENTIFICATION.—On an an15 nual basis, on a date to be determined by the 

16 Secretary, each State educational agency shall 

17 inform the Secretary of the total number of 

18 children identified by all local educational agen19 cies in the State under subparagraph (A). 

20 (2) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.— 

21 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara22 graph (B), the amount of payment for each eli23 gible child in a State shall be equal to— 

24 (i) the total amount allotted to the 

25 State under this title; divided by 


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1 (ii) the total number of eligible chil2 dren in the State identified under para3 graph (1). 

4 (B) LIMITATIONS.— 

5 (i) In the case of a payment made to 

6 the parent of an eligible child who elects to 

7 attend a private school, the amount of the 

8 payment described in subparagraph (A) for 

9 each eligible child shall not exceed the cost 

10 for tuition, fees, and transportation for the 

11 eligible child to attend the private school. 

12 (ii) In the case of a payment made to 

13 a parent of an eligible child who elects to 

14 home-school such child, the amount of the 

15 payment described in subparagraph (A) for 

16 each eligible child shall not exceed the cost 

17 of home-schooling the child. 

18 (3) ALLOCATION TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL

19 AGENCIES.—Based on the identification of eligible 

20 children in paragraph (1), the State educational 

21 agency shall provide to a local educational agency an 

22 amount equal to the product of— 

23 (A) the amount available for each eligible 

24 child in the State, as determined in paragraph 

25 (2); multiplied by 


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1 (B) the number of eligible children identi2 fied by the local educational agency under para3 graph (1)(A). 

4 (4) DISTRIBUTION TO SCHOOLS.—From 

5 amounts allocated under paragraph (3), each local 

6 educational agency that receives funds under such 

7 paragraph shall distribute a portion of such funds to 

8 the public schools served by the local educational 

9 agency, which amount shall— 

10 (A) be based on the number of eligible chil11 dren enrolled in such schools and included in 

12 the count submitted under paragraph (1)(A); 

13 and 

14 (B) be distributed in a manner that would, 

15 in the absence of such Federal funds, supple16 ment the funds made available from non-Fed17 eral resources for the education of eligible chil18 dren, and not to supplant such funds. 

19 (5) DISTRIBUTION TO PARENTS.— 

20 (A) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts allo21 cated under paragraph (3), each local edu22 cational agency that receives funds under such 

23 paragraph shall distribute a portion of such 

24 funds, in an amount equal to the amount de25 scribed in paragraph (2), to the parents of each 


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1 eligible child within the local educational agen2 cy’s geographical area who elect to send their 

3 child to a private school or to home-school their 

4 child (as the case may be) and whose child is 

5 included in the count of such eligible children 

6 under paragraph (1)(A), which amount shall be 

7 distributed in a manner so as to ensure that 

8 such payments will be used for appropriate edu9 cational expenses. 

10 (B) RESERVATION.—A local educational 

11 agency described in this paragraph may reserve 

12 not more than 1 percent of the funds available 

13 for distribution under subparagraph (A) to pay 

14 administrative costs associated with carrying 

15 out the activities described in such subpara16 graph. 

17 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Payments to parents 

18 under subsection (b)(5) shall be considered assistance to 

19 the eligible child and shall not be considered assistance 

20 to the school that enrolls the eligible child. The amount 

21 of any payment under this section shall not be treated as 

22 income of the child or his or her parents for purposes of 

23 Federal tax laws or for determining eligibility for any 

24 other Federal program. 


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1 SEC. 106. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this title: 

3 (1) ELIGIBLE CHILD.—The term ‘‘eligible 

4 child’’ means a child aged 5 to 17, inclusive. 

5 (2) PARENT.—The term ‘‘parent’’ includes a 

6 legal guardian or other person standing in loco 

7 parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with 

8 whom the child lives, or a person who is legally re9 sponsible for the child’s welfare). 

10 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

11 the Secretary of Education. 

12 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 

13 the 50 States and the District of Columbia. 

14 (5) QUALIFIED STATE.—The term ‘‘qualified 

15 State’’ means a State that has an application ap16 proved by the Secretary under section 104. 

17 TITLE II—NO HUNGRY KIDS ACT 

18 SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 

19 This title may be cited as the ‘‘No Hungry Kids Act’’. 

20 SEC. 202. REPEAL OF RULE. 

21 The rule prescribed by the Food and Nutrition Serv22 ice of the Department of Agriculture relating to nutrition 

23 standards in the national school lunch and school break24 fast programs published on January 26, 2012 (77 Fed. 

25 Reg. 4088 et seq.), and revising parts 210 and 220 of 


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1 title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, shall have no force 

2 or effect. 

3 SEC. 203. LIMITS ON CERTAIN NUTRITIONAL REQUIRE4 MENTS. 

5 Section 9(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Richard B. Russell Na6 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(a)(1)(A)(i)) is 

7 amended by inserting before the semicolon the following: 

8 ‘‘, to establish a calorie maximum for individual school 

9 lunches, or to prohibit a child from eating a lunch provided 

10 by the child’s parent or legal guardian’’. 

Æ 


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