I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 555
To require States to equalize funding for education throughout the State.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 3, 1999
Mr. FATTAH (for himself, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. BRADY of
Pennsylvania, Ms. LEE, Mr. MARTINEZ, and Mr. RUSH) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce
A BILL
To require States to equalize funding for education
throughout the State.
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 ‘‘Equal Protection
School Finance Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) There are systems of public school finance
within States which subject American children to
educations of radically varying and grossly unequal
quality solely on the basis of where they live.
(2) Agreement with the unanimous Supreme
Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education
which stated: ‘‘In these days, it is doubtful that any
child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life
if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such
an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to
provide it, is a right which must be made available
to all on equal terms.’’.
(3) Education is a fundamental right under the
equal protection clause of the United States Con-
stitution.
(4) The provision of education to all children
within a State on an equal basis, including equality
of financial resources, is fundamental to the equal
protection of laws.
SEC. 3. EQUALIZATION SYSTEM.
(a) IN GENERAL.—No State shall be eligible for Fed-
eral funds administered by the Department of Education
to support elementary and secondary education unless the
coefficient of variation (referred to in this Act as ‘‘COV’’)
of per pupil expenditures in local educational agencies
statewide for elementary and secondary education in such
State is less than 10 percent.
(b) CALCULATION.—The COV shall be calculated
based on intrastate expenditures for current operations,
as determined by the State, without regard to Federal con-
tributions.
(c) ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIONS.—
(1) SPECIAL PURPOSE.—Also excluded from the
COV calculation shall be capital expenditures and
special purpose funds without regard to source. Spe-
cial purpose funds are funds which are targeted to
address a specific need, such as the educationally
disadvantaged, handicapped, gifted, or language de-
ficient students.
(2) RESOURCES.—Nothing in this Act shall pre-
clude the State or the Federal Government from
providing additional resources to local educational
agencies to address such special needs.
(d) WAIVER.—The Secretary may provide funding for
elementary and secondary education to a State which has
not complied with the requirements of this section if the
State submits a plan for compliance which the Secretary
determines will bring the State into compliance not later
than 5 years after the date of submission of such plan.
SEC. 4. COMPLIANCE AND REPORTING.
(a) IN GENERAL.—
(1) ANNUAL REPORT.—To be eligible to receive
Federal education funds, a State shall submit an an-
nual report to the Secretary which certifies that the
State has complied with the provisions of this Act.
(2) CERTIFICATIONS.—Such certifications are
due not later than January 1 of each fiscal year and
shall be accepted by the Secretary unless challenged
by 1 or more local educational agencies.
(b) CERTIFICATION CHALLENGE.—To challenge the
validity of a State’s compliance certification, local edu-
cational agencies that represent not less than 10 percent
of the students in such State must file a complaint with
the Secretary, not later than 90 days after the date on
which the certification is due.
(c) COMPLIANCE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The failure of a State to
comply with the provisions of this Act shall result in
the loss of eligibility for Federal education funds
identified in section 3(a) beginning in the first fiscal
year after a finding of noncompliance by the Sec-
retary. Eligibility for such funds shall be restored at
the beginning of the next fiscal year in which the
Secretary finds the State to be in compliance.
(2) FEDERAL FUNDS.—The failure of a State
to comply with the provisions of this Act for a period
that exceeds 5 years from the date of the enactment
of this Act or the submission of a plan under section
3(d), whichever is longer, shall lose all forms of Fed-
eral assistance beginning in the first fiscal year after
such 5-year period until the State complies with the
provisions of this Act.
(d) REDISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—Funds for elemen-
tary and secondary education that are not distributed to
a State as a result of applying subsection (c) shall be re-
allocated by the Secretary to other States that have com-
plied with the requirements of section 3, that are imple-
menting compliance plans, or are developing compliance
plans pursuant to section 3(d).
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act the following terms have the
following meanings:
(1) The term ‘‘coefficient of variation’’ means
the standard deviation of local educational agency
expenditures divided by the mean per student ex-
penditure, in which local educational agencies with
fewer than 250 students have been excluded.
(2) The term ‘‘local educational agency’’ has
the same meaning given such term in section
14101(18) of the Elementary and Secondary Edu-
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801(18)).
(3) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of Education.
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