I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1217

To provide grants to local educational agencies to provide financial assistance

to elementary and secondary schools for obtaining computer software

for multilingual education, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 27, 2001

Mr. BACA (for himself, Ms. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GONZALEZ,

Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mr. SERRANO, and Ms.

VELA ́ZQUEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Education and the Workforce

A BILL

To provide grants to local educational agencies to provide

financial assistance to elementary and secondary schools

for obtaining computer software for multilingual education, 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. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Multilingual Education

5 and Technological Advancement Act of 2001’’.
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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR COMPUTER SOFTWARE FOR MULTI2 LINGUAL EDUCATION.

3 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—Subject to the avail4 ability of appropriations, the Secretary of Education may

5 award grants, on a competitive basis, to local educational

6 agencies to provide financial assistance to elementary and

7 secondary schools for obtaining computer software for

8 multilingual education.

9 (b) PREFERENCE.—In awarding grants under sub10 section (a), the Secretary shall give preference to local

11 educational agencies that serve an elementary or sec12 ondary school in which—

13 (1) a majority of the students are from families

14 with incomes below the poverty line, as defined by

15 the Office of Management and Budget and in effect

16 under section 673(2) of the Community Services

17 Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)); or

18 (2) there is a high concentration of students

19 with low levels of English proficiency.

20 (c) ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS.—A grant under this section

21 may be used to provide financial assistance only to an ele22 mentary or secondary school that meets the criteria of

23 paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (b).

24 (d) STUDY.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct

2 an annual study of the effectiveness of the grant

3 program under this section.

4 (2) REPORT.—By the end of each fiscal year

5 for which appropriations to carry out this Act are

6 available, the Secretary shall transmit to the Con7 gress a report that includes the following:

8 (A) Findings on the effectiveness of this

9 grant program, including the effectiveness of

10 the computer software.

11 (B) Recommendations for improving this

12 grant program.

13 (e) APPLICATION.—To seek a grant under subsection

14 (a), a local educational agency shall submit an application

15 to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and con16 taining such information as the Secretary may require.

17 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

18 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for

19 grants under this section $80,000,000 for fiscal years

20 2002 through 2006.

21 SEC. 3. GRANTS FOR COMPUTERS.

22 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—Subject to the avail23 ability of appropriations, the Secretary of Education may

24 award grants, on a competitive basis, to local educational
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1 agencies to provide financial assistance to elementary and

2 secondary schools for obtaining computers.

3 (b) MANDATORY GRANTS.—The Secretary shall

4 award a grant under subsection (a) to any local edu5 cational agency that—

6 (1) submits an application under subsection (c);

7 and

8 (2) serves elementary or secondary schools in

9 which, cumulatively, a majority of the students are

10 from families with incomes below the poverty line, as

11 defined by the Office of Management and Budget

12 and in effect under section 673(2) of the Community

13 Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)).

14 (c) ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS.—A grant under this section

15 may be used to provide financial assistance only to an ele16 mentary or secondary school in which—

17 (1) a majority of students are from families

18 with incomes below the poverty line, as defined by

19 the Office of Management and Budget and in effect

20 under section 673(2) of the Community Services

21 Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)); or

22 (2) there are fewer computers than the greater

23 of—

24 (A) 6 computers; or
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1 (B) a number of computers for that type

2 school established by the Secretary by a regula3 tion under this paragraph.

4 (d) APPLICATION.—To seek a grant under this sec5 tion, a local educational agency shall submit an application

6 to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and con7 taining such information as the Secretary may require.

8 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

9 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for

10 grants under this section $100,000,000 for each of fiscal

11 years 2002 through 2006.

12 SEC. 4. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRAINING AND MULTI13 LINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM GRANTS.

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap15 propriations, the Secretaries may make grants to eligible

16 partnerships to pay the Federal share of the cost of estab17 lishing and carrying out—

18 (1) information technology training programs

19 for former participants in information technology

20 training programs who have not received information

21 technology certification, minorities, women, older in22 dividuals, veterans, Native Americans, and dis23 located workers; and

24 (2) multilingual education programs.
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1 (b) PARTNERSHIPS.—To be an eligible partnership

2 under subsection (a), a partnership shall consist of—

3 (1) an institution of higher education; and

4 (2) a private organization, such as a certified

5 commercial information technology training provider

6 or an information technology trade or professional

7 association.

8 (c) APPLICATION.—To seek a grant under subsection

9 (a), an eligible partnership shall submit an application to

10 the Secretaries at such time, in such manner, and con11 taining such information as the Secretaries may require.

12 (d) FEDERAL SHARE.—

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of the

14 cost described in subsection (a) shall be 50 percent.

15 (2) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The non-Federal

16 share of the cost shall be provided in cash or in

17 kind, fairly evaluated by the Secretaries, and may

18 include plant, equipment, or services.

19 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

20 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretaries to

21 carry out this section $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2002

22 and such sums as may be necessary for each subsequent

23 fiscal year.
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1 SEC. 5. BONUS GRANTS FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2 CERTIFICATION.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap4 propriations, the Secretary of Education may make grants

5 to local educational agencies to assist such agencies in

6 awarding bonuses to teachers who achieve information

7 technology certification.

8 (b) LIMITATION ON AMOUNT.—The amount of a

9 grant to a local educational agency under subsection (a)

10 shall not exceed the product determined by multiplying

11 $5,000 by the number of teachers described pursuant to

12 subsection (c)(2) in the application for the grant.

13 (c) APPLICATION.—

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—To seek a grant under this

15 section, a local educational agency shall submit an

16 application to the Secretary at such time, in such

17 manner, and containing such information as the Sec18 retary may require.

19 (2) CONTENTS.—The application shall include

20 information describing the number of teachers em21 ployed by the local educational agency who—

22 (A) have achieved information technology

23 certification, including such certification for in24 tegrating information technology into the class25 room or a curriculum; and
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1 (B) have not previously received a bonus

2 under this section.

3 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

4 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Edu5 cation to carry out this section $120,000,000 for each of

6 fiscal years 2002 through 2006.

7 SEC. 6. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR TEACHER TRAINING.

8 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—Subject to the avail9 ability of appropriations, the Secretary of Education may

10 award grants, on a competitive basis, to institutions of

11 higher education to provide scholarships to any eligible

12 student.

13 (b) ELIGIBLE STUDENTS.—For purposes of this sec14 tion, the term ‘‘eligible student’’ means a student who—

15 (1) is preparing to enter the teaching work16 force; and

17 (2) meets the criteria established under sub18 section (c).

19 (c) CRITERIA.—For purposes of subsection (b)(2),

20 the Secretary shall establish criteria that require a student

21 to obtain both technological and multilingual education.

22 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

23 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry

24 out this section $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2002 and
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1 such sums as may be necessary for each of the 4 suc2 ceeding fiscal years.

3 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

4 In this Act:

5 (1) CERTIFIED COMMERCIAL INFORMATION

6 TECHNOLOGY TRAINING PROVIDER.—The term ‘‘cer7 tified commercial information technology training

8 provider’’ means a private sector provider of edu9 cational products and services utilized for training in

10 information technology that is certified by 1 or more

11 software publishers or hardware manufacturers (the

12 products of which are the subject of the training)

13 with respect to—

14 (A) the curriculum that is used for the

15 training; or

16 (B) the technical knowledge of the instruc17 tors of such provider.

18 (2) DISLOCATED WORKER.—The term ‘‘dis19 located worker’’ has the meaning given the term in

20 section 101 of the Workforce Investment Act of

21 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2801).

22 (3) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘elemen23 tary school’’ has the meaning given the term in sec24 tion 14101 of the Elementary and Secondary Edu25 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).
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1 (4) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CERTIFI2 CATION.—The term ‘‘information technology certifi3 cation’’ means certification in information tech4 nology, in accordance with such standards as—

5 (A)(i) the Computing Technology Industry

6 Association or the Information Technology

7 Training Association may issue, after consulta8 tion with chief education officers of States,

9 State boards, entities that certify or license

10 teachers, and other entities affected by the

11 standards; or

12 (ii) a State board or entity that certifies or

13 licenses teachers may issue, after consultation

14 with chief education officers of States, and

15 other entities affected by the standards; and

16 (B) the Secretaries may approve.

17 (5) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRAINING PRO18 GRAM.—The term ‘‘information technology training

19 program’’ means a program for the training of—

20 (A) computer programmers, systems ana21 lysts, and computer scientists or engineers (as

22 such occupations are defined by the Bureau of

23 Labor Statistics); and

24 (B) persons for such other occupations as

25 are determined to be appropriate by the Secre-
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1 taries, after consultation with a working group

2 broadly solicited by the Secretaries and open to

3 all interested information technology entities

4 and trade and professional associations.

5 (6) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The

6 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the

7 meaning given the term in section 102 of the Higher

8 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002).

9 (7) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term

10 ‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given

11 the term in section 14101 of the Elementary and

12 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).

13 (8) NATIVE AMERICAN.—The term ‘‘Native

14 American’’ means an Indian or a Native Hawaiian,

15 as defined in section 166(b) of the Workforce Invest16 ment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2911(b)).

17 (9) SECONDARY SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘sec18 ondary school’’ has the meaning given the term in

19 section 14101 of the Elementary and Secondary

20 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).

21 (10) SECRETARIES.—The term ‘‘Secretaries’’

22 means the Secretary of Education and the Secretary

23 of Labor, acting jointly.
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1 (11) VETERAN.—The term ‘‘veteran’’ has the

2 meaning given the term in section 101 of the Work3 force Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2801).

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