II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1137 

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

a Volunteer Teacher Advisory Committee. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 21, 2009 

Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, Mrs. LINCOLN, Mr. SANDERS, and 

Mr. DODD) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 

of 1965 to establish a Volunteer Teacher Advisory Committee. 

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 ‘‘Teachers at the Table 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. VOLUNTEER TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 

7 The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

8 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) is amended by adding after 

9 section 1004 (20 U.S.C. 6304) the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 1005. VOLUNTEER TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 

2 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab3 lish an advisory committee, to be known as the Volunteer 

4 Teacher Advisory Committee (referred to in this section 

5 as the ‘Committee’). 

6 ‘‘(b) DUTIES AND FOCUS.—The duty of the Com7 mittee shall be to monitor the effects of this Act, on the 

8 ground and in classrooms, and the focus of the Committee 

9 shall solely be on children and families. 

10 ‘‘(c) MEMBERSHIP.— 

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The membership of the 

12 Committee shall consist of 20 public elementary 

13 school or secondary school classroom teachers who— 

14 ‘‘(A) are past or present Teachers of the 

15 Year; 

16 ‘‘(B) have received training, or dem17 onstrated experience, in methods of data collec18 tion, analysis, and reporting; and 

19 ‘‘(C) have submitted an application to the 

20 Secretary to serve on the Committee. 

21 ‘‘(2) LIST; APPOINTMENT.—The Secretary shall 

22 compile a list of teachers submitting applications 

23 under paragraph (1)(B). The members of the Com24 mittee shall be appointed as follows: 

25 ‘‘(A) The Secretary shall appoint 4 teach26 ers from the list. 


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1 ‘‘(B) The majority leader of the Senate 

2 shall appoint 4 teachers from the list. 

3 ‘‘(C) The minority leader of the Senate 

4 shall appoint 4 teachers from the list. 

5 ‘‘(D) The Speaker of the House of Rep6 resentatives shall appoint 4 teachers from the 

7 list. 

8 ‘‘(E) The minority leader of the House of 

9 Representatives shall appoint 4 teachers from 

10 the list. 

11 ‘‘(3) REPRESENTATION REQUIREMENT.—The 

12 members of the Committee shall represent diverse 

13 and multiple geographic, grade level, and specialty 

14 areas. 

15 ‘‘(4) TERM.—Each member of the Committee 

16 shall serve on the Committee for a 2-year term. 

17 ‘‘(d) ANNUAL REPORT.— 

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Committee shall sub19 mit to Congress and the Secretary— 

20 ‘‘(A) on an annual basis, a report on the 

21 monitoring carried out under subsection (b); 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(B) on a quarterly basis, updates on such 

24 monitoring. 


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1 ‘‘(2) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report sub2 mitted under paragraph (1) shall include, at a min3 imum, the following: 

4 ‘‘(A) Both quantitative and qualitative 

5 data that evaluate the effect of this section on 

6 student achievement. 

7 ‘‘(B) The effect of this section on closing 

8 the achievement gap between high- and low-per9 forming students, including the students identi10 fied under section 1111(b)(2)(C)(v)(II). 

11 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDS.—Of the amounts 

12 appropriated to, and available at the discretion of, the Sec13 retary for programmatic and administrative expenditures 

14 for fiscal years 2010 through 2014, a total of $500,000 

15 shall be used to establish and carry out the functions of 

16 the Committee established under this section.’’. 

Æ 


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