I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1623

To reduce class size, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 29, 1999

Mr. CLAY (for himself, Mr. KILDEE, and Mr. MARTINEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the

Workforce

A BILL

To reduce class size, 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 VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education

5 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7301 et seq.) is amended by add6 ing at the end the following:

7 ‘‘PART E—CLASS SIZE REDUCTION

8 ‘‘SEC. 6601. SHORT TITLE.

9 ‘‘This part may be cited as the ‘Class Size Reduction

10 and Teacher Quality Act of 1999’.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 6602. FINDINGS.

2 ‘‘Congress finds as follows:

3 ‘‘(1) Rigorous research has shown that students

4 attending small classes in the early grades make

5 more rapid educational progress than students in

6 larger classes, and that these achievement gains per7 sist through at least the elementary grades.

8 ‘‘(2) The benefits of smaller classes are greatest

9 for lower achieving, minority, poor, and inner-city

10 children. One study found that urban fourth-graders

in smaller-than-average classes were 3 11 ⁄4 of a school

12 year ahead of their counterparts in larger-than-aver13 age classes.

14 ‘‘(3) Teachers in small classes can provide stu15 dents with more individualized attention, spend more

16 time on instruction and less on other tasks, cover

17 more material effectively, and are better able to

18 work with parents to further their children’s edu19 cation.

20 ‘‘(4) Smaller classes allow teachers to identify

21 and work more effectively with students who have

22 learning disabilities and, potentially, can reduce

23 those students’ need for special education services in

24 the later grades.
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1 ‘‘(5) Students in smaller classes are able to be2 come more actively engaged in learning than their

3 peers in large classes.

4 ‘‘(6) Efforts to improve educational achieve5 ment by reducing class sizes in the early grades are

6 likely to be more successful if—

7 ‘‘(A) well-prepared teachers are hired and

8 appropriately assigned to fill additional class9 room positions; and

10 ‘‘(B) teachers receive intensive, continuing

11 training in working effectively in smaller class12 room settings.

13 ‘‘(7) Several States have begun a serious effort

14 to reduce class sizes in the early elementary grades,

15 but these actions may be impeded by financial limi16 tations or difficulties in hiring well-prepared teach17 ers.

18 ‘‘(8) The Federal Government can assist in this

19 effort by providing funding for class-size reductions

20 in grades 1 through 3, and by helping to ensure that

21 the new teachers brought into the classroom are well

22 prepared.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 6603. PURPOSE.

2 ‘‘The purpose of this part is to help States and local

3 educational agencies recruit, train, and hire 100,000 addi4 tional teachers over a 7-year period in order to—

5 ‘‘(1) reduce class sizes nationally, in grades 1

6 through 3, to an average of 18 students per class7 room; and

8 ‘‘(2) improve teaching in the early grades so

9 that all students can learn to read independently

10 and well by the end of the third grade.

11 ‘‘SEC. 6604. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

12 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the

13 purpose of carrying out this part, there are authorized to

14 be appropriated, $1,400,000,000 for fiscal year 2000,

15 $1,500,000,000 for fiscal year 2001, $1,700,000,000 for

16 fiscal year 2002, $1,735,000,000 for fiscal year 2003,

17 $2,300,000,000 for fiscal year 2004, and $2,800,000,000

18 for fiscal year 2005.

19 ‘‘(b) ALLOTMENTS.—

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From the amount appro21 priated under subsection (a) for a fiscal year the

22 Secretary—

23 ‘‘(A) shall make a total of 1 percent avail24 able to the Secretary of the Interior (on behalf

25 of the Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the out-
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1 lying areas for activities that meet the purpose

2 of this part; and

3 ‘‘(B) shall allot to each State the same

4 percentage of the remaining funds as the per5 centage it received of funds allocated to States

6 for the previous fiscal year under section 1122

7 or section 2202(b), whichever percentage is

8 greater, except that such allotments shall be

9 ratably decreased as necessary.

10 ‘‘(2) DEFINITION OF STATE.—In this part the

11 term ‘‘State’’ means each of the several States of

12 the United States, the District of Columbia and the

13 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

14 ‘‘(3) STATE-LEVEL EXPENSES.—Each State

may use not more than a total of 1 15 ⁄2 of 1 percent

16 of the amount the State receives under this part, or

17 $50,000, whichever is greater, for a fiscal year, for

18 the administrative costs of the State educational

19 agency.

20 ‘‘(c) WITHIN STATE DISTRIBUTION.—

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each State that receives an

22 allotment under this section shall distribute the

23 amount of the allotted funds that remain after using

24 funds in accordance with subsection (b)(3) to local

25 educational agencies in the State, of which—
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1 ‘‘(A) 80 percent of such remainder shall be

2 allocated to such local educational agencies in

3 proportion to the number of children, aged 5 to

4 17, who reside in the school district served by

5 such local educational agency and are from

6 families with incomes below the poverty line (as

7 defined by the Office of Management and

8 Budget and revised annually in accordance with

9 section 673(2) of the Community Services

10 Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) applica11 ble to a family of the size involved) for the most

12 recent fiscal year for which satisfactory data is

13 available compared to the number of such indi14 viduals who reside in the school districts served

15 by all the local educational agencies in the State

16 for that fiscal year, except that a State may ad17 just such data; and

18 ‘‘(B) 20 percent of such remainder shall be

19 allocated to such local educational agencies in

20 accordance with the relative enrollments of chil21 dren, aged 5 to 17, in public and private non22 profit elementary schools and secondary schools

23 in the school districts within the boundaries of

24 such agencies.
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1 ‘‘(2) AWARD RULE.—Notwithstanding para2 graph (1), if the award to a local educational agency

3 under this section is less than the starting salary for

4 a new teacher in that agency, the State shall not

5 make the award unless—

6 ‘‘(A) the local educational agency agrees to

7 form a consortium with not less than 1 other

8 local educational agency for the purpose of re9 ducing class size; or

10 ‘‘(B) the local educational agency agrees to

11 supplement the award with non-Federal funds

12 sufficient to pay the cost of hiring a teacher.

13 ‘‘SEC. 6605. USE OF FUNDS.

14 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Each local educational agency

15 that receives funds under this part shall use such funds

16 to carry out effective approaches to reducing class size

17 with highly qualified teachers to improve educational

18 achievement for both regular and special-needs children,

19 with particular consideration given to reducing class size

20 in the early elementary grades for which some research

21 has shown class size reduction is most effective.

22 ‘‘(b) CLASS REDUCTION.—

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each such local educational

24 agency may pursue the goal of reducing class size

25 through—
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1 ‘‘(A) recruiting, hiring, and training cer2 tified regular and special education teachers

3 and teachers of special-needs children, including

4 teachers certified through State and local alter5 native routes;

6 ‘‘(B) testing new teachers for academic

7 content knowledge, and to meet State certifi8 cation requirements that are consistent with

9 title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965;

10 and

11 ‘‘(C) providing professional development to

12 teachers, including special education teachers

13 and teachers of special-needs children, con14 sistent with title II of the Higher Education

15 Act of 1965.

16 ‘‘(2) RESTRICTION.—A local educational agency

17 may use not more than a total of 15 percent of the

18 funds received under this part for each of the fiscal

19 years 2000 through 2003 to carry out activities de20 scribed in subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph

21 (1), and may not use any funds received under this

22 part for fiscal year 2004 or 2005 for those activities.

23 ‘‘(3) SPECIAL RULE.—A local educational agen24 cy that has already reduced class size in the early
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1 grades to 18 or fewer children may use funds re2 ceived under this part—

3 ‘‘(A) to make further class-size reductions

4 in grades 1 through 3;

5 ‘‘(B) to reduce class size in kindergarten

6 or other grades; or

7 ‘‘(C) to carry out activities to improve

8 teacher quality, including professional develop9 ment activities.

10 ‘‘(c) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—A local edu11 cational agency shall use funds under this part only to

12 supplement, and not to supplant, State and local funds

13 that, in the absence of such funds, would otherwise be

14 spent for activities under this part.

15 ‘‘(d) PROHIBITION.—No funds made available under

16 this part may be used to increase the salaries of or provide

17 benefits to (other than participation in professional devel18 opment and enrichment programs) teachers who are, or

19 have been, employed by the local educational agency.

20 ‘‘(e) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.—If a local edu21 cational agency uses funds made available under this part

22 for professional development activities, the agency shall

23 ensure the equitable participation of private nonprofit ele24 mentary and secondary schools in such activities. Section

25 6402 shall not apply to other activities under this section.
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1 ‘‘(f) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—A local edu2 cational agency that receives funds under this part may

3 use not more than 3 percent of such funds for local admin4 istrative expenses.

5 ‘‘SEC. 6606. COST-SHARING REQUIREMENT.

6 ‘‘(a) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of the

7 cost of activities carried out under this part—

8 ‘‘(1) may be up to 100 percent in local edu9 cational agencies with child-poverty levels of 50 per10 cent or greater; and

11 ‘‘(2) shall be no more than 65 percent for local

12 educational agencies with child-poverty rates of less

13 than 50 percent.

14 ‘‘(b) LOCAL SHARE.—A local educational agency

15 shall provide the non-Federal share of a project under this

16 part through cash expenditures from non-Federal sources,

17 except that if an agency has allocated funds under section

18 1113(c) to one or more schoolwide programs under section

19 1114, it may use those funds for the non-Federal share

20 of activities under this program that benefit those

21 schoolwide programs, to the extent consistent with section

22 1120A(c) and notwithstanding section 1114(a)(3)(B).

23 ‘‘SEC. 6607. REQUEST FOR FUNDS.

24 ‘‘Each local educational agency that desires to receive

25 funds under this part shall include in the application sub-
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1 mitted under section 6303 a description of the agency’s

2 program under this part to reduce class size by hiring ad3 ditional highly qualified teachers.

4 ‘‘SEC. 6608. REPORTS.

5 ‘‘(a) STATE.—Each State receiving funds under this

6 part shall report on activities in the State under this sec7 tion, consistent with section 6202(a)(2).

8 ‘‘(b) SCHOOL.—Each school receiving assistance

9 under this part, or the local educational agency serving

10 that school, shall produce an annual report to parents, the

11 general public, and the State educational agency, in easily

12 understandable language, regarding student achievement

13 that is a result of hiring additional highly qualified teach14 ers and reducing class size.’’.

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