I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5346
To provide for adequate and equitable educational opportunities for students
in State public school systems, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 9, 2002
Mr. FATTAH (for himself, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. SANDERS, Ms.
BROWN of Florida, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California,
Mr. CONYERS, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mr. OWENS, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr.
MEEKS of New York, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. BORSKI, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDON-
ALD, Ms. DELAURO, Mrs. CLAYTON, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr. RUSH, Mr.
CUMMINGS, Mr. ANDREWS, Ms. LEE, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr.
MURTHA, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. HOEFFEL,
Ms. PELOSI, Mr. FROST, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GEPHARDT,
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. BALDACCI, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. WYNN,
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. BACA, Mr. DOYLE, Mr.
FORD, Mr. RANGEL, and Ms. NORTON) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To provide for adequate and equitable educational opportuni-
ties for students in State public school systems, 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student Bill of
Rights’’.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings and purposes.
TITLE I—EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY IN STATE PUBLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Subtitle A—Access to Educational Opportunity
Sec. 111. Adequate and equitable State public school systems.
Sec. 112. State educational adequacy and equity requirements.
Sec. 113. State-established standards for access to educational opportunity.
Subtitle B—State Accountability
Sec. 121. Determination of educationally adequate and inequitable State public
school systems.
Sec. 122. State accountability for improvement of educational opportunity.
Sec. 123. Consequences of nonremediation.
Subtitle C—Public Reporting and Remedy
Sec. 131. Annual report by Secretary on adequacy and equity in State public
school systems.
Sec. 132. Civil action for enforcement.
TITLE II—EFFECTS OF EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES ON
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
Sec. 201. Effects on economic growth and productivity.
Sec. 202. Effects on national defense.
TITLE III—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. Definitions.
Sec. 302. Notice and opportunity for hearing.
Sec. 303. Rulemaking.
Sec. 304. Rule of construction.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) A high-quality, highly competitive education
for all students is imperative for the economic
growth and productivity of the United States, for its
effective national defense, and for achievement of
the historical aspiration to be one Nation of equal
citizens. It is therefore necessary and proper to over-
come the nationwide phenomenon of educationally
inadequate or inequitable State public school sys-
tems, in which high-quality public schools serve
high-income communities and poor-quality schools
serve low-income, urban, rural, and minority commu-
nities.
(2) There exists in the States an ever-widening
educational opportunity gap for low-income, urban,
rural, and minority students characterized by the
following:
(A) Highly differential educational expend-
itures among public school districts within
States.
(B) Continuing disparities within the
States in students’ access to the fundamentals
of educational opportunity described in section
112(a).
(C) 
Radically 
differential 
educational
achievement among public school districts with-
in the States, as measured by the following:
(i) Achievement in mathematics, read-
ing or language arts, and science on State
academic achievement tests and measures,
including the academic assessments de-
scribed in section 113(b)(1).
(ii) Advanced placement courses of-
fered and taken.
(iii) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
and ACT Assessment scores.
(iv) Dropout rates and graduation
rates.
(v) College-going and college-comple-
tion rates.
(vi) Job placement and retention rates
and indices of job quality.
(3) As a consequence of this educational oppor-
tunity gap, the quality of a child’s education depends
largely upon where the child’s family lives, and the
detriments of lower quality public education are im-
posed particularly on—
(A) children from low-income families;
(B) children living in urban and rural
areas; and
(C) minority children.
(4) Since 1785, the Congress of the United
States, exercising the power to admit new States
under article IV, section 3 of the Constitution (and
previously, the Congress of the Confederation of
States under the Articles of Confederation), has im-
posed upon every State, as a fundamental condition
of the State’s admission, the following requirements:
(A) One, and sometimes two, square-mile
lots in every township were to be ‘‘granted and
. . . reserved for the maintenance and use of
public schools’’.
(B) ‘‘[S]chools and the means of education
[are to] be forever encouraged’’.
(C) ‘‘State conventions [were to] provide,
by ordinances irrevocable without the consent of
the United States and the people of said States
. . . that provision . . . be made for the estab-
lishment and maintenance of systems of public
schools which shall be open to all children of
said States’’.
(See Ordinances of May 20, 1785, and July 13,
1787; Act of March 3, 1845, 28th Cong. 2d Sess.,
5 Stat. 789, Chap. 76 (admitting Iowa and Florida);
Act of February 22, 1889, 50th Cong., 2d Sess.,
Chap. 180 (admitting States created from the Da-
kota Territories); and the Acts of Congress per-
taining to the admission of each of the States.)
(5) Over the years since the landmark ruling in
Brown v. Board of Education, when a unanimous
United States Supreme Court held that ‘‘the oppor-
tunity of an education . . . , where the state has
undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be
made available to all on equal terms’’, courts in 44
of the States have heard challenges to the establish-
ment, maintenance, and operation of educationally
inadequate or inequitable State public school sys-
tems. (347 U.S. 483, 493 (1954).)
(6) In 1970, the Presidential Commission on
School Finance found that significant disparities in
the distribution of educational resources existed
among public school districts within States because
the States relied too significantly on local district fi-
nancing for educational revenues, and that reforms
in systems of school financing would increase the
Nation’s ability to serve the educational needs of all
children.
(7) In 1999, the National Research Council of
the National Academy of Sciences published a report
entitled ‘‘Making Money Matter, Financing Amer-
ica’s Schools’’, which found that the concept of fund-
ing adequacy, which moves beyond the more tradi-
tional concepts of finance equity to focus attention
on the sufficiency of funding for desired educational
outcomes, is an important step in developing a fair
and productive educational system.
(8) In 2001, the Executive order establishing
the President’s Commission on Educational Re-
source Equity declared, ‘‘A quality education is es-
sential to the success of every child in the 21st cen-
tury and to the continued strength and prosperity of
our Nation. . . . [L]ong-standing gaps in access to
educational resources exist, including disparities
based on race and ethnicity.’’ (Executive Order
13190, § 1 (January 15, 2001); 66 Fed. Reg. 5424.)
(9) According to the Secretary of Education, as
stated in a letter (with enclosures) dated January
19, 2002, from the Secretary to States—
(A) racial and ethnic minorities continue to
suffer from lack of access to educational re-
sources, including ‘‘experienced and qualified
teachers, adequate facilities, and instructional
programs and support, including technology, as
well as . . . the funding necessary to secure
these resources’’; and
(H) these inadequacies are ‘‘particularly
acute in high-poverty schools, including urban
schools, where many students of color are iso-
lated and where the effect of the resource gaps
may be cumulative. In other words, students
who need the most may often receive the least,
and these students often are students of color’’.
(10) The Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.), as amended
by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public
Law 107–110), provides that—
(A) States must establish standards and
assessments in mathematics, reading or lan-
guage arts, and science;
(B) elementary schools and secondary
schools must ensure that all students are pro-
ficient in such subjects within 12 years after
the end of the 2001–2002 school year; and
(C) elementary schools and secondary
schools will be held accountable for the stu-
dents’ progress.
(11) The standards and accountability move-
ment will succeed only if, in addition to standards
and accountability, all schools have access to the
educational resources necessary to enable students to
achieve.
(12) Raising standards without ensuring ade-
quate and equitable access to educational resources
may, in fact, exacerbate achievement gaps and set
children up for failure.
(13) According to the World Economic Forum’s
Global Competitiveness Report 2001–2002, the
United States ranks last among developed countries
in the difference in the quality of schools available
to rich and poor children.
(14) Each State Government has ultimate au-
thority in determining every important aspect and
priority of the public school system that provides ele-
mentary and secondary education to children in the
State, including whether children throughout the
State have high access to the fundamentals of edu-
cational opportunity described in section 112(a).
(15) Since 1965, the Congress, in exercising its
spending authority, has provided substantial Federal
financial assistance to the States for the improve-
ment of their public school systems. In their expend-
iture and oversight of this assistance, the States
have failed systematically to achieve the purpose of
the Congress in providing the assistance, namely the
effective education of all the children of the United
States.
(16) Because a well-educated populace is crit-
ical to the Nation’s political and economic well-being
and national security, the Federal Government has
a substantial interest in ensuring that States provide
a high-quality education by ensuring that all chil-
dren have access to the fundamentals of educational
opportunity described in section 112(a) to enable the
children to succeed academically and in life.
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are the fol-
lowing:
(1) To further the goals of the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107–110) and the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) by holding States account-
able for providing all students access to the fun-
damentals of educational opportunity described in
section 112(a).
(2) To ensure that all students in public ele-
mentary schools and secondary schools receive edu-
cational opportunities that enable the students—
(A) to acquire the knowledge and skills
necessary for responsible citizenship, including
the ability to participate fully in the political
process through informed electoral choice;
(B) to meet challenging State student aca-
demic achievement standards; and
(C) to be able to compete and succeed in
a global economy.
(3) To end the pervasive pattern of education-
ally inadequate or inequitable State public school
systems.
TITLE I—EDUCATIONAL OPPOR-
TUNITY 
IN 
STATE 
PUBLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Subtitle A—Access to Educational
Opportunity
SEC. 111. ADEQUATE AND EQUITABLE STATE PUBLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEMS.
Each State receiving Federal financial assistance for
elementary or secondary education shall maintain a public
school system that meets the requirements of section 112
and provides all students in the State with—
(1) the educational resources needed to succeed
academically and in life; and
(2) an education that enables the students—
(A) to acquire the knowledge and skills
necessary for responsible citizenship;
(B) to participate fully in the political
process through informed electoral choice; and
(C) to be able to compete and succeed in
a global economy.
SEC. 112. STATE EDUCATIONAL ADEQUACY AND EQUITY
REQUIREMENTS.
(a) FUNDAMENTALS
OF
EDUCATIONAL
OPPOR-
TUNITY.—A State shall provide for all public schools in
the State access, at levels defined by the State under sec-
tion 113 as ideal or adequate, to each of the following fun-
damentals of educational opportunity:
(1) HIGH-QUALITY CLASSROOM TEACHERS AND
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS.—High-quality classroom
instruction and school-level administrators, as meas-
ured by the following:
(A) The proportion of teachers in core aca-
demic subjects who are highly qualified (as that
term is defined in section 9101 of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 7801)).
(B) Leadership, management, and guid-
ance from school principals (and other school-
level administrators) certified under an applica-
ble State or national program.
(2) RIGOROUS
ACADEMIC
STANDARDS, CUR-
RICULA, AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION.—Rigorous
academic standards, curricula, and methods of in-
struction, as measured by the extent to which each
public school district succeeds in providing high-
quality academic standards, curricula, and methods
of instruction to students in each public elementary
school and secondary school within the district.
(3) SMALL CLASS SIZES.—Small class sizes, as
measured by the following:
(A) The average class size and the range
of class sizes.
(B) The proportion of classes with 17 or
fewer students.
(4) QUALITY FACILITIES, TEXTBOOKS, AND IN-
STRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES.—Quality
school facilities, textbooks, and instructional mate-
rials and supplies, as measured by the following:
(A)(i) The physical condition of school
buildings and major school building features.
(ii) Environmental conditions in school
buildings.
(iii) The quality of instructional space.
(B) The proportion of students who begin
the school year with school-issued textbooks.
(C) The average age of textbooks and in-
structional materials and supplies used in core
academic subjects.
(5) UP-TO-DATE LIBRARY RESOURCES.—High-
quality, up-to-date, and state-of-the-art library re-
sources, as measured by the following: