the interests of the purchasing entity or its employ-
ees or any affiliate of such an organization.
‘‘(c) AMENDMENTS.—The State board may submit
amendments to the State application, as necessary, during
the 5-year period. Such amendments shall be submitted
in accordance with section 113(c).’’.
SEC. 114. SUBMISSION OF STATE APPLICATION.
Section 114 of the Act is amended—
(1) by redesignating such section as section
113;
(2) by striking ‘‘STATE PLAN APPROVAL’’ in
the section heading and inserting ‘‘SUBMISSION OF
STATE APPLICATION’’;
(3) by striking subsections (a) and (b); and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(a) APPLICATION.—Each State application shall be
submitted to the Secretary by not later than May 1 pre-
ceding the beginning of the first fiscal year for which a
State application is to be in effect.
‘‘(b) CONSULTATION.—The State board shall develop
the portion of each State application relating to the
amount and uses of any funds proposed to be reserved
for adult vocational-technical education, postsecondary vo-
cational-technical education, tech-prep education, and sec-
ondary vocational-technical education after consultation
with the State agency responsible for supervision of com-
munity colleges, technical institutes, or other 2-year post-
secondary institutions primarily engaged in providing
postsecondary vocational-technical education, and the
State agency responsible for secondary education. If a
State agency finds that a portion of the final State appli-
cation is objectionable, such agency shall file such objec-
tions with the State board. The State board shall respond
to any objections of such agency in submitting such appli-
cation to the Secretary.
‘‘(c) APPLICATION SUBMISSION.—A State application
submitted to the Secretary under this section shall be ap-
proved by the Secretary unless the Secretary makes a
written determination, within 90 days after receiving the
application, that the application is in violation of the provi-
sions of this Act.’’.
SEC. 115. ACCOUNTABILITY.
Part B of title I is amended by inserting after section
113, as redesignated, the following:
‘‘SEC. 114. ACCOUNTABILITY.
‘‘(a) BENCHMARKS.—
‘‘(1) ELIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive an
allotment under section 102, a State shall develop
and identify in the State application submitted
under section 113 proposed rigorous and quantifi-
able benchmarks to measure the statewide progress
of the State, which shall include, at a minimum,
measures, of—
‘‘(A) attainment of challenging State aca-
demic and vocational proficiencies;
‘‘(B) attainment of secondary school diplo-
mas or general equivalency diplomas; and
‘‘(C) placement in, retention in, and com-
pletion of, postsecondary education or advanced
training, or placement and retention in military
service, or employment.
‘‘(2) EXISTING BENCHMARKS.—If a State has
developed State performance indicators or bench-
marks for skills according to challenging academic
or vocational proficiencies consistent with this Act,
the State may use such performance indicators or
benchmarks in measuring the progress of vocational-
technical education students.
‘‘(b) PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT AND SANCTIONS.—
‘‘(1) STATE PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT PLAN.—If
a State fails to meet its State benchmarks as de-
scribed in the report submitted under subsection (c),
the State shall develop and implement a program
improvement plan in consultation with appropriate
agencies, individuals, and organizations for the first
program year succeeding the program year in which
the State failed to meet its benchmarks in order to
avoid a sanction as provided under paragraph (3).
‘‘(2) LOCAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN.—If an eligi-
ble recipient fails to meet its State benchmarks, the
eligible recipient shall develop a program improve-
ment plan with appropriate agencies, individuals,
and organizations for the succeeding program year.
‘‘(3) SANCTIONS.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—If a State fails to
meet the State benchmarks required under sub-
section (a), and has not implemented an im-
provement plan as described in paragraph (1),
has not demonstrated improvement in meeting
its benchmarks, or has failed to meet its bench-
marks for 2 or more consecutive years, the Sec-
retary may, after notice and opportunity for a
hearing, or withhold from the State all, or a
portion of, the State’s allotment under this Act.
The Secretary may waive the sanction due to
exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances
such as a natural disaster or a precipitous and
unforeseen decline in the financial resources of
the State.
‘‘(B) FUNDS RESULTING FROM REDUCED
ALLOTMENTS.—The amount of funds retained
by the Secretary as a result of a reduction in
an allotment made under subparagraph (A)
shall be redistributed to other States in accord-
ance with section 101.
‘‘(c) REPORT.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—
‘‘(A) INFORMATION.—Each State that re-
ceives an allotment under section 102 shall an-
nually prepare and submit to the Secretary a
report on how the State is performing on State
benchmarks that relate to vocational-technical
education programs. In preparing the report,
the State may include information on such ad-
ditional vocational-technical education bench-
marks as the State may establish.
‘‘(B) SPECIAL POPULATIONS.—The report
submitted by the State in accordance with sub-
paragraph (A) shall include a description of
how special populations, displaced homemakers,
single parents, and single pregnant women par-
ticipating in vocational-technical education pro-
grams have performed in meeting the voca-
tional-technical education benchmarks estab-
lished by the State.
‘‘(2) INFORMATION DISSEMINATION.—
‘‘(A) STATE REQUIREMENTS.—Each State
shall make the information contained in reports
described under paragraph (1) available to the
general public through publication and other
appropriate methods which may include elec-
tronic communication.
‘‘(B) SECRETARY
REQUIREMENTS.—The
Secretary shall make the information contained
in such reports available to the general public
through publication and other appropriate
methods which may include electronic commu-
nication.
‘‘(3) BENCHMARK PERFORMANCE.—Each local
recipient shall make available to the general public
information regarding how the local recipient is per-
forming in regard to the State benchmarks.’’.
SEC. 116. PROGRAM EVALUATION.
Sections 115, 116, 117, and 118 of the Act are re-
pealed.