I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2884
To provide dollars to the classroom. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2003
Mr. PITTS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To provide dollars to the classroom.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Dollars to the Class-
room Act’’. 
SEC. 2. GRANTS TO STATES. 
The Secretary may award grants in accordance with 
this Act to States for use by States and local educational 
agencies to improve classroom services and activities for 
students.
SEC. 3. GRANT AWARD. 
(a) RESERVATION OF FUNDS.—From the amount ap-
propriated to carry out this Act for any fiscal year, the 
Secretary shall reserve—
(1) 1⁄2 of 1 percent for the outlying areas, to be 
distributed among the outlying areas on the basis of 
their relative need, as determined by the Secretary 
in accordance with the purposes of this section; and 
(2) 1⁄2 of 1 percent for the Secretary of the In-
terior for programs under this Act in schools oper-
ated or funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
(b) STATE ALLOCATIONS.—Funds appropriated to 
carry out this Act for any fiscal year, which are not re-
served under subsection (a), shall be allocated among the 
States as follows: 
(1) HOLD
HARMLESS.—Subject to paragraph 
(2), no State shall receive an award under this sec-
tion for any fiscal year that is less than the aggre-
gate amount such State received to carry out pro-
grams or activities for fiscal year 2003 under the 
following provisions (as in effect on the day pre-
ceding the date of the enactment of this Act): 
(A) Part F of title I of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965. 
(B) Part A of title II of the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(C) Subpart 1 of part D of title II of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965. 
(D) Part A of title V of the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 
(E) Subtitle B of title VII of the McKin-
ney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. 
(2) INSUFFICIENT FUNDS.—If the amount of 
appropriations to carry out this Act for any fiscal 
year is insufficient to pay the full amounts that all 
States are eligible to receive under paragraph (1) for 
such year, the Secretary shall ratably reduce such 
amounts for such year. 
(3) REMAINING FUNDS.—If funds remain after 
meeting the requirements of paragraph (1), such re-
maining funds shall be allocated among the States 
in the following manner: 
(A) 50 percent of such remaining funds 
shall be allocated to the States in proportion to 
their grants under part A of title I of the Ele-
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
for the preceding fiscal year; and 
(B) 50 percent of such remaining funds 
shall be allocated to the States in proportion to 
the number of children ages 5 through 17 who
reside in the States, according to the most re-
cent available data that are satisfactory to the 
Secretary. 
(c) DEFINITION OF STATE.—For purposes of this 
section, the term ‘‘State’’ includes the 50 States, the Dis-
trict of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 
(d) DEFINITION OF OUTLYING AREA.—For purposes 
of this section, the term ‘‘outlying area’’ includes Amer-
ican Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 
(e) PAYMENTS.—Funds awarded to a State under 
this Act shall be paid to the individual or entity in the 
State that is responsible for the State administration of 
Federal education funds pursuant to State law. 
(f) USE OF STATE AWARDS.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—From the amount made 
available to a State under subsection (b) for a fiscal 
year, the State—
(A) shall use not more than 5 percent of 
the amount to support programs or activities, 
for children ages 5 through 17, that the State 
determines appropriate, of which the State shall 
distribute 20 percent of the 5 percent to local 
educational agencies in the State to pay the ad-
ministrative expenses of the local educational
agencies that are associated with the activities 
and services assisted under this section; and 
(B) shall distribute, pursuant to section 
4(a), not less than 95 percent of the amount to 
local educational agencies in the State for the 
fiscal year to enable the local educational agen-
cies to pay the costs of activities or services 
provided in the classroom, for children ages 5 
through 17, that the local educational agencies 
determine appropriate subject to the require-
ments of section 4(b). 
(2) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—For the pur-
pose of paragraph (1)(B), the costs of activities and 
services provided in the classroom exclude the ad-
ministrative expenses associated with the activities 
and services. 
(g) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—A State or local 
educational agency shall use funds received under this Act 
only to supplement the amount of funds that would, in 
the absence of such Federal funds, be made available from 
non-Federal sources for the education of pupils partici-
pating in programs assisted under this Act, and not to 
supplant such funds. 
(h) ANNUAL REPORTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Each State receiving assist-
ance under this part shall issue a report on an an-
nual basis, not later than April 1 of each year begin-
ning the year after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, to the Secretary, the Committee on Education 
and the Workforce of the House of Representatives, 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and 
Pensions of the Senate, and the Committees on Ap-
propriations of the House of Representatives and the 
Senate that describes how funds under this Act have 
been used to improve student performance in that 
State. 
(2) CERTIFICATION.—Each report submitted 
under this subsection shall include a certification by 
the State that 95 percent of funding provided under 
this Act during the preceding fiscal year has been 
expended by local educational agencies within that 
State for classroom activities and services pursuant 
to subsection (f)(1)(B). 
(3) MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE.—In deter-
mining student academic performance within the 
State, the State shall use such measures of student 
academic performance as it deems appropriate. The 
State may disaggregate data by poverty, subject
area, race, gender, geographic location, or other cri-
teria as the State deems appropriate. 
(4) AVAILABILITY
OF
REPORT.—Each State 
shall make the report described in this subsection 
available to parents and members of the public 
throughout that State. 
SEC. 4. LOCAL AWARDS. 
(a) DETERMINATION OF AMOUNT OF FUNDS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The individual or entity in 
the State that is responsible for the State adminis-
tration of Federal education funds pursuant to State 
law of each State receiving assistance under this 
Act, in consultation with the Governor of such State, 
the chief State school officer of such State, rep-
resentatives from the State legislature, and rep-
resentatives from local educational agencies within 
such State, shall develop a formula for the allocation 
of funds described in section 3, to local educational 
agencies, taking into consideration—
(A) poverty rates within each local edu-
cational agency; 
(B) children living in sparsely populated 
areas; 
(C) an equitable distribution of funds 
among urban, rural, and suburban areas;
(D) children whose education imposes a 
higher than average cost per child; and 
(E) such other factors as considered appro-
priate. 
(2) HOLD
HARMLESS.—Subject to paragraph 
(3), no local educational agency shall receive an 
award under this subsection for any fiscal year in an 
amount that is less than the sum of the following: 
(A) The aggregate amount the local edu-
cational agency received to carry out programs 
or activities for fiscal year 2003 under the fol-
lowing provisions (as in effect on the day pre-
ceding the date of the enactment of this Act): 
(i) Part F of title I of the Elementary 
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. 
(ii) Part A of title II of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965. 
(iii) Subpart 1 of part D of title II of 
the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act of 1965. 
(iv) Part A of title V of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 
1965.