I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3157
To improve education in overcrowded classrooms by increasing the number
of teachers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 4, 1998
Mr. PAXON (for himself, Mr. BLILEY, Mr. LIVINGSTON, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr.
SOUDER, Mr. GIBBONS, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. SMITH of Michigan, Mr.
RILEY, Mrs. LINDA
SMITH
of Washington, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr.
HAYWORTH, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, and Mr. ENSIGN) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and
the Workforce
A BILL
To improve education in overcrowded classrooms by
increasing the number of teachers.
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 ‘‘Teachers in the Class-
room Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Enrollment in elementary and secondary
schools is at the highest level ever recorded in this
country, and the Department of Education recently
announced that 52,200,000 students are expected to
attend school in 1998, an increase of more than a
million students over 1997.
(2) Increases in elementary and secondary stu-
dent enrollment will continue in record numbers
each year for the next decade with more than
3,000,000 additional students expected; secondary
school attendance alone is expected to increase by
more than 13 percent.
(3) This unprecedented increase in student en-
rollment will affect high poverty urban and rural
areas, and States experiencing rapid population
growth.
(4) Just to keep pace with the growing number
of enrolled elementary and secondary school stu-
dents, schools will need to hire 150,000 additional
teachers during the next decade.
(5) Data and research, including information
from the State of Tennessee’s Student/Teacher
Achievement Ratio project (Project STAR), the larg-
est and longest lasting experiment ever conducted to
examine the effects of small class sizes on student
learning and development, suggest that students in
the early grades learn more in smaller classes, con-
tinue to have an edge over the rest of their peers
years after they return to normal-sized classrooms
and show that every time a student is added to a
classroom, learning is diminished for the rest of the
class.
(6) It is vital that we adequately educate and
prepare America’s children for the next century and
our competitive global economy.
(7) Helping improve the learning environment
for each and every student is an important goal, hir-
ing new teachers is an important objective, and Con-
gress needs to fund positions for teachers without
adding to the Federal bureaucracy, deficit, or debt.
(8) Congress needs to provide resources to keep
pace with growing enrollment and, if possible, help
to reduce classroom sizes.
SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education is au-
thorized to award grants to Governors to enable Governors
to provide funds to local educational agencies to hire ele-
mentary and secondary teachers or qualified instructional
personnel as authorized under State law to reduce over-
crowded classes.
(b) STATE ELIGIBILITY.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a
grant under this Act, a Governor of a State shall
submit an application to the Secretary.
(2) DISAPPROVAL.—To the extent that appro-
priations are made available in a fiscal year to carry
out this Act, the Secretary shall not disapprove an
application from a Governor.
(c) LOCAL ELIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to receive a
grant from the Governor, a local educational agency
shall—
(1) establish a trust fund for all payments re-
ceived under this Act;
(2) provide assurances that funds received
under this Act will be deposited in such trust fund
account;
(3) provide assurances that funds received
under this Act will be used only to hire new teachers
or qualified personnel not later than 2 years after
receipt of such funds;
(4) provide assurances that the agency will use
accounting and auditing practices stipulated by the
Governor and allow the State access to any and all
records regarding funds received and used under
this Act;
(5) provide assurances that the agency will
achieve a net gain in the number of teachers or
qualified instructional personnel in a classroom set-
ting;
(6) review annually the performance of person-
nel hired pursuant to this Act to ensure that the
agency has hired qualified personnel;
(7) obligate personnel hired pursuant to this
Act for a period of employment not to exceed one
year;
(8) repay to the State not later than 27 months
after receipt of funds from the State any amounts
not expended after 24 months of such receipt;
(9) 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 stu-
dents participating in programs assisted under this
Act, and not to supplant such funds; and
(10) apply to the Governor each year in which
the agency wishes to receive funding under this Act.
SEC. 4. DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—From the amount appropriated
for this Act under section 8 for any fiscal year, each State
is eligible to receive an amount that bears the same ratio
to the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor
and Human Resources of the Senate not later than March
1 of each year and shall include in this report, an evalua-
tion of the effectiveness of programs assisted under this
Act and recommendations regarding the continuity of this
program.
SEC. 7. CONSTRUCTION.
Nothing in this Act may be construed to provide ten-
ure to personnel hired pursuant to this Act.
SEC. 8. DEFINITION.
For purposes of this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘local educational agency’’ means
a board of education or other authority constituted
within a State for administrative control or direction
of or to perform a service function for elementary
and secondary schools;
(2) the term ‘‘State’’ means each of the 50
States and the District of Columbia; and
(3) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of the Department of Education.
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to carry out this Act—
(1) $500,000,000 for fiscal year 1999;
(2) $1,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2000;
(3) $1,500,000,000 for fiscal year 2001;
(4) $2,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2002; and
(5) $2,500,000,000 for fiscal year 2003.
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