I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3450
To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to reduce 
class size through the use of fully qualified teachers, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 5, 2003
Mr. WU (for himself, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, Mr. MCDERMOTT, 
Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. MILLENDER-
MCDONALD, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, Mr. 
FROST, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. NORTON, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. 
BROWN of Ohio, Mr. STARK, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Mr. 
OWENS, and Mr. KUCINICH) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
of 1965 to reduce class size through the use of fully 
qualified teachers, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. CLASS SIZE REDUCTION. 
Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) is amended by add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘PART E—CLASS SIZE REDUCTION 
‘‘SEC. 5701. GRANT PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purposes of this section are—
‘‘(1) to reduce class size through the use of 
fully qualified teachers; 
‘‘(2) to assist States and local educational agen-
cies in recruiting, hiring, and training 100,000 
teachers in order to reduce class sizes nationally, in 
grades 1 through 3, to an average of 18 students 
per regular classroom; and 
‘‘(3) to improve teaching in those grades so 
that all students can learn to read independently 
and well by the end of the 3d grade. 
‘‘(b) ALLOTMENT TO STATES.—
‘‘(1) RESERVATION.—From the amount made 
available to carry out this part for a fiscal year, the 
Secretary shall reserve not more than 1 percent for 
the Secretary of the Interior (on behalf of the Bu-
reau of Indian Affairs) and the outlying areas for 
activities carried out in accordance with this section. 
‘‘(2) STATE ALLOTMENTS.—
‘‘(A) HOLD HARMLESS.—
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Subject to sub-
paragraph (B) and clause (ii), from the 
amount made available to carry out this 
part for a fiscal year and not reserved
under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 
allot to each State an amount equal to the 
amount that such State received for the 
preceding fiscal year under this section. 
‘‘(ii) RATABLE
REDUCTION.—If the 
amount made available to carry out this 
part for a fiscal year and not reserved 
under paragraph (1) is insufficient to pay 
the full amounts that all States are eligible 
to receive under clause (i) for such fiscal 
year, the Secretary shall ratably reduce 
such amounts for such fiscal year. 
‘‘(B) 
ALLOTMENT
OF
ADDITIONAL 
FUNDS.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 
(ii), for any fiscal year for which the 
amount made available to carry out this 
part and not reserved under paragraph (1) 
exceeds the amount made available to the 
States for the preceding year under the au-
thorities described in subparagraph (A)(i), 
the Secretary shall allot to each of those 
States the percentage of the excess amount 
that is the greater of—
‘‘(I) the percentage the State re-
ceived for the preceding fiscal year of 
the total amount made available to 
the States under section 1122; or 
‘‘(II) the percentage so received 
of the total amount made available to 
the States under section 2111(b). 
‘‘(ii) RATABLE REDUCTIONS.—If the 
excess amount for a fiscal year is insuffi-
cient to pay the full amounts that all 
States are eligible to receive under clause 
(i) for such fiscal year, the Secretary shall 
ratably reduce such amounts for such fis-
cal year. 
‘‘(c) ALLOCATION TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN-
CIES.—
‘‘(1) ALLOCATION.—Each State that receives 
funds under this section shall allocate 100 percent 
of those funds to local educational agencies, of 
which—
‘‘(A) 80 percent shall be allocated to those 
local educational agencies in proportion to the 
number of children, age 5 through 17, from 
families with incomes below the poverty line (as 
defined by the Office of Management and
Budget and revised annually in accordance with 
section 673(2) of the Community Services 
Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2))) applica-
ble to a family of the size involved, who reside 
in the school district served by that local edu-
cational agency for the most recent fiscal year 
for which satisfactory data are available, com-
pared to the number of those children who re-
side in the school districts served by all the 
local educational agencies in the State for that 
fiscal year; and 
‘‘(B) 20 percent shall be allocated to those 
local educational agencies in accordance with 
the relative enrollments of children, age 5 
through 17, in public and private nonprofit ele-
mentary schools and secondary schools within 
the areas served by those agencies.
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding paragraph 
(1) and subsection (d)(2)(B), if the award to a local 
educational agency under this section is less than 
the starting salary for a new fully qualified teacher 
for a school served by that agency, that agency may 
use funds made available under this section to—
‘‘(A) help pay the salary of a full- or part-
time fully qualified teacher hired to reduce class
size, which may be done in combination with 
the expenditure of other Federal, State, or local 
funds; or 
‘‘(B) pay for activities described in sub-
section (d)(2)(A)(iii) that may be related to 
teaching in smaller classes. 
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—
‘‘(1) MANDATORY
USES.—Each local edu-
cational agency that receives funds under this sec-
tion shall use those funds to carry out effective ap-
proaches to reducing class size through use of fully 
qualified teachers to improve educational achieve-
ment for both regular and special needs children, 
with particular consideration given to reducing class 
size in the early elementary grades for which some 
research has shown class size reduction is most ef-
fective. 
‘‘(2) PERMISSIBLE USES.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each such local edu-
cational agency may use funds made available 
under this section for—
‘‘(i) recruiting (including through the 
use of signing bonuses, and other financial 
incentives), hiring, and training fully quali-
fied regular and special education teachers
(which may include hiring special edu-
cation teachers to team-teach with regular 
teachers in classrooms that contain both 
children with disabilities and non-disabled 
children) and teachers of special needs 
children; 
‘‘(ii) testing new teachers for aca-
demic content knowledge, and to meet 
State certification or licensing require-
ments that are consistent with title II of 
the Higher Education Act of 1965; and 
‘‘(iii) providing professional develop-
ment (which may include such activities as 
promoting retention and mentoring) for 
teachers, including special education teach-
ers and teachers of special needs children, 
in order to meet the goal of ensuring that 
all teachers have the general knowledge, 
teaching skills, and subject matter knowl-
edge necessary to teach effectively in the 
content areas in which the teachers teach, 
consistent with title II of the Higher Edu-
cation Act of 1965. 
‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON TESTING AND PRO-
FESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.—
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Except as pro-
vided in clause (ii), a local educational 
agency may use not more than a total of 
25 percent of the funds received by the 
agency under this section for activities de-
scribed in clauses (ii) and (iii) of subpara-
graph (A). 
‘‘(ii) SPECIAL
RULE.—A local edu-
cational agency may use more than 25 per-
cent of the funds the agency receives under 
this section for activities described in sub-
paragraph (A)(iii) for the purpose of help-
ing teachers who are not yet fully qualified 
in attaining full qualification if 10 percent 
or more of the elementary school classes in 
a school are taught by individuals who are 
not fully qualified teachers or the State 
educational agency has waived State cer-
tification or licensing requirements for 10 
percent or more of such teachers. 
‘‘(C) USE OF FUNDS BY AGENCIES THAT 
HAVE REDUCED CLASS SIZE.—Notwithstanding 
subparagraph (B), a local educational agency 
that has already reduced class size in the early 
elementary grades to 18 or fewer children (or
has already reduced class size to a State or 
local class size reduction goal that was in effect 
on November 28, 1999 if that goal is 20 or 
fewer children) may use funds received under 
this section—
‘‘(i) to make further class size reduc-
tions in kindergarten through third grade; 
‘‘(ii) to reduce class size in other 
grades; or 
‘‘(iii) to carry out activities to improve 
teacher quality, including professional de-
velopment. 
‘‘(3) SUPPLEMENT, 
NOT
SUPPLANT.—Each 
such agency shall use funds made available under 
this section only to supplement, and not to supplant, 
State and local funds that, in the absence of funds 
made available under this section, would otherwise 
be expended for activities described in this section. 
‘‘(4) LIMITATION ON USE FOR SALARIES AND 
BENEFITS.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 
subparagraph (B), no funds made available 
under this section may be used to increase the 
salaries of, or provide benefits (other than par-
ticipation in professional development and en-
‘‘(B) the impact that hiring additional fully 
qualified teachers and reducing class size, has 
had, if any, on increasing student academic 
achievement. 
‘‘(3) NOTICE.—Each local educational agency 
that receives funds under this section shall provide 
to each individual parent of a child who attends a 
school in such local educational agency timely, writ-
ten notice if the child has been assigned or has been 
taught for 2 or more consecutive weeks by a sub-
stitute teacher, as defined by such local educational 
agency, or a teacher who is not fully qualified. 
‘‘(f) PRIVATE SCHOOLS.—If a local educational agen-
cy uses funds made available under this section for profes-
sional development activities, the agency shall ensure the 
equitable participation of private nonprofit elementary 
schools and secondary schools in such activities in accord-
ance with section 5142. Section 5142 shall not apply to 
other activities carried out under this section. 
‘‘(g) ADMINISTRATIVE
EXPENSES.—A local edu-
cational agency that receives funds under this section may 
use not more than 3 percent of such funds for local admin-
istrative costs. 
‘‘(h) REQUEST FOR FUNDS.—Each local educational 
agency that desires to receive funds under this section
shall include in the application required under section 
6303 a description of the agency’s program to reduce class 
size by hiring additional fully qualified teachers. 
‘‘(i) 
CERTIFICATION, 
LICENSING, 
AND
COM-
PETENCY.—No funds made available under this section 
may be used to pay the salary of any teacher unless such 
teachers is fully qualified. 
‘‘(j) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section—
‘‘(1) the term ‘certified’ includes certification 
through State or local alternative routes; and 
‘‘(2) the term ‘fully qualified’—
‘‘(A) when used with respect to an elemen-
tary or secondary school teacher, means that 
the teacher has obtained certification or passed 
the State licensing exam and holds a license; 
and 
‘‘(B) when used with respect to—
‘‘(i) an elementary school teacher, 
means that the teacher holds a bachelor’s 
degree and demonstrates general knowl-
edge, teaching skill, and subject matter 
knowledge required to teach at the elemen-
tary school level in the core academic sub-
jects; or
‘‘(ii) a middle or secondary school 
teacher, means that the teacher holds a 
bachelor’s degree and demonstrates a high 
level of competency in all subject areas in 
which he or she teaches through—
‘‘(I) a high level of performance 
on a rigorous academic subject area 
test; or 
‘‘(II) completion of an academic 
major in each of the subject areas in 
which he or she provides instruction. 
‘‘SEC. 5702. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
this part $2,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2004 and such 
sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2005 through 
2008.’’.
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