I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3876
To reduce class size.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 14, 1998
Mr. CLAY (for himself, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. STRICKLAND, Mr. GEPHARDT, Mr.
BONIOR, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. WISE, Mr. SAWYER, Ms. PELOSI, Mr.
FORD, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mrs. LOWEY, Mrs.
KENNELLY of Connecticut, Mr. PASTOR, Ms. CARSON, Mr. CONYERS, Ms.
SLAUGHTER, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. DOYLE, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mrs. MINK of
Hawaii, Mr. WYNN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. KIND, Mr.
STARK, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. DAVIS of Florida, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. SCOTT,
Mr. PRICE
of North Carolina, Mr. NEAL
of Massachusetts, Mr.
HINOJOSA, Mr. OBEY, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. OWENS, Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms.
NORTON, Mr. FARR of California, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. TORRES, Mr.
BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. POMEROY, and Mr. HOYER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu-
cation and the Workforce
A BILL
To reduce class size.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND FINDINGS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Class-Size Reduction and Teacher Quality Act of 1998’’.
(b) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) Rigorous research has shown that students
attending small classes in the early grades make
more rapid educational progress than students in
larger classes, and that these achievement gains per-
sist through at least the elementary grades.
(2) The benefits of smaller classes are greatest
for lower-achieving, minority, poor, and inner-city
children. One study found that urban fourth-graders
in smaller-than-average classes were three-quarters
of a school year ahead of their counterparts in larg-
er-than-average classes.
(3) Teachers in small classes can provide stu-
dents with more individualized attention, spend more
time on instruction and less on other tasks, and
cover more material effectively, and are better able
to work with parents to further their children’s edu-
cation.
(4) Smaller classes allow teachers to identify
and work more effectively with students who have
learning disabilities and, potentially, can reduce
those students’ need for special education services in
the later grades.
(5) Students in smaller classes are able to be-
come more actively engaged in learning than their
peers in large classes.
(6) Efforts to improve educational achievement
by reducing class sizes in the early grades are likely
to be more successful if well-prepared teachers are
hired and appropriately assigned to fill additional
classroom positions and if teachers receive intensive,
continuing training in working effectively in smaller
classroom settings.
(7) Several States have begun a serious effort
to reduce class sizes in the early elementary grades,
but these actions may be impeded by financial limi-
tations or difficulties in hiring well-prepared teach-
ers.
(8) The Federal Government can assist in this
effort by providing funding for class-size reductions
in grades one through three, and by helping to en-
sure that the new teachers brought into the class-
room are well prepared.
SEC. 2. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to help States and local
educational agencies recruit, train, and hire 100,000 addi-
tional teachers over a seven-year period in order to—
(1) reduce class sizes nationally, in grades 1
through 3, to an average of 18 students per class-
room; and
(2) improve teaching in the early grades so that
all students can learn to read independently and well
by the end of the third grade.
SEC. 3. PROGRAM FUNDING.
For the purpose of carrying out this Act, there are
appropriated out of any funds in the Treasury not other-
wise appropriated $1,100,000,000 for fiscal year 1999,
$1,300,000,000 for fiscal year 2000, $1,500,000,000 for
fiscal year 2001, $1,700,000,000 for fiscal year 2002,
$1,735,000,000 for fiscal year 2003, $2,300,000,000 for
fiscal year 2004, and $2,800,000,000 for each of the fiscal
years 2005 through 2008.
SEC. 4. ALLOCATIONS TO STATES.
(a) RESERVATION
FOR EVALUATION.—From the
amount appropriated by section 3 for each fiscal year, the
Secretary may reserve up to $2 million to carry out the
evaluation described in section 13.
(b) RESERVATION FOR THE OUTLYING AREAS AND
THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.—Of the amount ap-
propriated by section 3 for each fiscal year and remaining
after any reservation under subsection (a), the Secretary
shall reserve a total of not more than 1 percent to make
payments, on the basis of their respective needs, to—
(1) American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands,
and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-
lands for activities, approved by the Secretary, con-
sistent with this Act; and
(2) the Secretary of the Interior for activities,
approved by the Secretary, consistent with this Act
in schools operated or supported by the Bureau of
Indian Affairs.
(c) ALLOCATIONS TO STATES.—(1) After reserving
funds under subsections (a) and (b), the Secretary shall
allocate to each State an amount that bears the same rela-
tionship to the remaining amount as the amount of fund-
ing the State received under section 1122 of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 for the pre-
vious fiscal year bore to the total amount available for allo-
cation under that section.
(2) If any State chooses not to participate in the pro-
gram under this Act, or fails to submit an approvable ap-
plication, the Secretary shall reallocate its allocation to the
remaining States, in accordance with paragraph (1).
SEC. 5. APPLICATIONS.
(a) APPLICATION REQUIRED.—The State educational
agency of each State desiring to receive a grant under this
Act shall submit an application to the Secretary at such
time, in such form, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
(b) CONTENTS.—Each application shall include—
(1) the State’s goals for using funds under this
Act to reduce average class sizes in regular class-
rooms in grades 1 through 3, including—
(A) a description of current regular class-
room class sizes in the local educational agen-
cies of the State;
(B) a description of the State’s plan for
using funds under this Act to reduce the aver-
age class size in regular classrooms in those
grades; and
(C) the regular classroom class-size goals
the State intends to reach and a justification
for those goals;
(2) a description of the State educational agen-
cy’s plan for allocating program funds within the
State, including—
(A) an estimate of the impact of those allo-
cations on class sizes in the individual local
educational agencies of the State;
(B) an assurance that the State edu-
cational agency will make this plan public with-
in the State; and
(C) a description of the current and pro-
jected capacity of the State’s school facilities to
accommodate reduced class sizes;
(3) a description of the State educational agen-
cy’s strategy for improving teacher quality in grades
1 through 3 within the State (which may be part of
a broader strategy to improve teacher quality gen-
erally), including—
(A) the actions it will take to ensure the
availability, within the State, of a pool of well-
prepared, certified teachers to fill the positions
created with funds under this Act; and
(B) a description of how the State edu-
cational agency and the local educational agen-
cies in the State will ensure that—
(i) individuals hired for positions cre-
ated with program funds (which may in-
clude individuals who have pursued ‘‘alter-
native routes’’ to certification) will meet all
of the State’s current requirements for full
certification, or will be making satisfactory
progress toward achieving full certification
within three years;
(ii) teachers in first through third
grade will be prepared to teach reading ef-
fectively to all children, including those
with special needs, and will take part in
continuing professional development in ef-
fective reading instruction and in teaching
effectively in small classes; and
(iii) individuals hired as beginning
teachers in first through third grade will
be required to pass a teacher competency
test selected by the State;
(4) a description of how the State will use other
funds, including other Federal funds, to improve
teacher quality and reading achievement within the
State;
(5) a description of how the State will hold local
educational agencies that use a significant portion of
their allocations under section 8(a)(2)(B) account-
able for that use of funds;
(6) an assurance that the local educational
agency and its schools will comply with the require-
ments of subsections (a) and (b) of section 11; and
(7) an assurance that the State educational
agency will submit such reports and information as
the Secretary may reasonably require.
(c) APPROVAL
OF APPLICATIONS.—The Secretary
shall approve a State’s application if it meets the require-
ments of this section and holds reasonable promise of
achieving the purposes of this Act.
SEC. 6. WITHIN-STATE ALLOCATIONS.
(a) STATE-LEVEL EXPENSES.—Each State may use
not more than a total of one-half of one percent of the
amount it receives under this part for any fiscal year or
$50,000, whichever is greater, for the administration costs
of the State educational agency and for State-level activi-
ties described in section 7.
(b) SUBGRANTS
TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN-
CIES.—(1) Each State shall use the remainder of its allo-
cation to make subgrants to local educational agencies, for
the purpose of reducing class size and improving instruc-
tion in grades 1 through 3, on the basis of—
(A) current or projected regular classroom class
sizes in grades 1 through 3 in those agencies; and
(B) the relative ability and effort of those agen-
cies to finance class-size reductions with their own
funds.
(2) Each State shall make the allocations described
in paragraph (1) in such manner as to enable local edu-
cational agencies to reduce their average class sizes in reg-
ular classrooms, in grades 1 through 3, to the average
class size proposed in the State application.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), each State shall
ensure, in allocating funds under this subsection, that
each local educational agency in which at least 30 percent
of the children are from low-income families, or in which
there are at least 10,000 children from such families, re-
ceives at least the same share of those funds as it received
of the State’s allocation under section 1122 of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 for the preced-
ing fiscal year.
(c) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.—(1) A local edu-
cational agency may receive an allocation under this sec-
tion for any fiscal year only if it submits to, or has on
file with, the State educational agency an assurance that
it will spend at least as much from non-Federal sources
as it spent in the previous year for the combination of—
(A) teachers in regular classrooms in grades 1
through 3 in schools receiving benefits under this
Act; and
(B) the quality-improvement activities described
in section 8(b).
(2) The Secretary may waive or modify the require-
ment of paragraph (1) for a local educational agency if
the Secretary determines that doing so would be equitable
due to exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances affect-
ing that agency.
SEC. 7. STATE-LEVEL ACTIVITIES.
East State educational agency may use the funds it
reserves for State-level activities under section 6(a) to
carry out activities described in its application, which may
include such activities as—
(1) strengthening State teacher licensure and
certification standards;
(2) developing or strengthening, and admin-
istering, teacher competency tests for beginning
teachers; and
(3) program monitoring and other administra-
tive costs associated with operating the program.
SEC. 8. USES OF FUNDS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Each local educational agency
shall use all funds it receives from the State under this
Act, except for funds it reserves under subsection (b), to
pay the salaries of, and benefits for, the additional teach-
ers needed to reduce class sizes in grades 1 through 3 to
the level set by the State as its goal in the State applica-
tion.
(2) A local educational agency that has already
reached this level may use those funds to—
(A) make further class-size reductions in grades
1 through 3;
(B) reduce class sizes in kindergarten or other
grades; or
(C) undertake quality-improvement activities
under subsection (b).
(b) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT.—(1) Each local edu-
cational agency shall use at least 10 percent of the funds
it receives under this Act for each of the fiscal years 1999
through 2003 for activities to ensure that teachers who
will teach smaller classes are prepared to teach reading
and other subjects effectively in a smaller class setting.
(2) The activities described in paragraph (1) may in-
clude—
(A) training teachers in effective reading in-
structional practices (including practices for teach-
ing students who experience initial difficulty in
learning to read) and in effective instructional prac-
tices in small classes;
(B) paying the costs for uncertified teachers
hired in grades 1 through 3 to obtain full certifi-
cation within three years;
(C) providing mentors or other support for
teachers in grades 1 through 3;
(D) improving recruitment of teachers for
schools that have a particularly difficult time hiring
certified instructors; and
(E) providing scholarships or other aid for edu-
cation and education-related expenses to paraprofes-
sionals or undergraduate students in order to ex-
pand the pool of well-prepared and certified teach-
ers.
SEC. 9. COST-SHARING REQUIREMENT.
(a) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of the cost
of activities carried out under this Act may be up to 100
percent in local educational agencies with child-poverty
levels greater than 40 percent, but shall be no more
than—
(1) 95 percent in local educational agencies
with child-poverty rates of more than 30 percent but
not more than 40 percent;
(2) 85 percent in local educational agencies
with child-poverty rates of more than 20 percent but
not more than 30 percent;
(3) 75 percent in local educational agencies
with child-poverty rates of more than 10 percent but
not more than 20 percent; and
(4) 65 percent in local educational agencies
with child-poverty rates of not more than 10 per-
cent.
(b) LOCAL SHARE.—A local educational agency shall
provide the non-Federal share of a project under this Act
through cash expenditures from non-Federal sources, ex-
cept that if an agency has allocated funds under section
1113(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
of 1965 to one or more schoolwide programs under section
1114 of that Act, it may use those funds for the non-Fed-
eral share of activities under this program that benefit
those schoolwide programs, to the extent consistent with
section 1120A(c) of that Act and notwithstanding section
1114(a)(3)(B) of that Act.
SEC. 10. CARRYOVER OF FUNDS.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any
funds received under this Act by a State or by a local edu-
cational agency shall remain available for obligation and
expenditure by the State or local agency for one fiscal year
beyond the fiscal year described in section 421(b) of the
General Educational Provisions Act.
SEC. 11. ACCOUNTABILITY.
(a) SCHOOL REPORT.—Each school benefitting from
the program under this Act, or the local educational agen-
cy for that school, shall produce an annual report to par-
ents and the general public on its student achievement in
reading (using available evidence of reading achievement
of its students in grades 1 through 5 and the assessments
the State uses under part A of title I of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965, disaggregated as
required under that part), average class size in its regular
classrooms, and teacher certification and related academic
qualifications in grades 1 through 3.
(b) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY REPORTS.—(1)
INTERM REPORTS.—Each local educational agency shall
provide each year, to its State educational agency, a report
summarizing the information reported by, or for, its
schools under subsection (a).
(2) SUBSEQUENT REPORTS.—Within three years of
receiving funding under this Act, and each year thereafter,
each local educational agency shall provide evidence, to its
State educational agency, of the reading achievement of
its students, in grade 3, 4, or 5 in schools served under
this Act, which shall be—
(A) in a form determined by the State edu-
cational agency;
(B) based on the assessments that the local
educational agency is using under title I of the Ele-
mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, or
on comparably rigorous State or local assessments;
and
(C) disaggregated to show the achievement of
students in individual schools and of students sepa-
rately by race and by gender, as well as for students
with disabilities, students with limited English pro-
ficiency, migrant students, and students who are
economically disadvantaged.
(c) PROGRAM-IMPROVEMENT PLAN.—A local edu-
cational agency with schools that fail to show improvement
in reading achievement within three years of receiving
funds under this Act shall, with the approval of the State
educational agency, develop and implement a program-im-
provement plan to improve student performance.
(d) REDUCED LOCAL ALLOCATIONS.—If a school
participating in the program under this Act fails to show
improvement in reading achievement of its students within
two years after the local educational agency develops a
plan subsection (b), the State educational agency shall re-
duce the allocation to that local agency by an amount
equal to the share of the local agency’s allocation attrib-
utable to that school.
SEC. 12. PARTICIPATION OF PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS.
Each local educational agency receiving funds under
this Act shall, after timely and meaningful consultation
with appropriate private school officials, provide for the
inclusion (in a manner proportionate to the number of
children residing in the area served by the agency’s project
under this Act who attend private schools) of private
school teachers in the professional-development activities
the agency and its schools carry out with those funds.
SEC. 13. EVALUATION.
With funds reserved under section 4(a), the Secretary
shall carry out an evaluation of the program authorized
by this Act, including a measurement of its effectiveness
in accordance with the Government Performance and Re-
sults Act of 1993.
SEC. 14. WAIVERS.
The Secretary may, at the request of a State edu-
cational agency, waiver or modify a requirement of this
Act if the Secretary determines that such requirement im-
pedes the ability of the State to carry out the purpose of
this Act and that providing a waiver would better promote
the purpose of this Act.
SEC. 15. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act, the following terms have the fol-
lowing meanings:
(1) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term
‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given
that term in section 14101(18) (A) and (B) of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of Education.
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto
Rico.
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