Closing the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools:
GOP Education Accomplishments of the 107^th Congress

October 10, 2002

Ø President Bush and Republicans are working to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers.

Ø For 35 years, Washington spent billions on education without insisting on results for our children. President Bush and the 107^th Congress brought that era to an end.

OVERVIEW: 22 Months of GOP Action on Education Reform

Education has been President Bush’s top domestic policy priority and a focal point of the Republican agenda during the 107^th Congress. From enactment of the President Bush’s historic No Child Left Behind education reforms to legislation giving new tools to school teachers and parents, President Bush and congressional Republicans are leading the drive to improve education and ensure every child learns.

For 35 years, Washington spent billions on education without insisting on results for our children. Billions upon billions were spent, yet the achievement gap between students rich and poor, white and minority remains wide. President Bush and the 107^th Congress brought that era to an end. The federal government will no longer fund failure and false hope in education. Federal education funds now come with a simple demand: get results.

Across the nation, reform-minded parents, teachers and principals have swung into action in recent months, leading by example in putting the new resources – and new attitude – of No Child Left Behind work on behalf of students. President Bush, Education Secretary Rod Paige, and Republicans in Congress have reached out to families and communities this year in an ongoing partnership aimed at putting the new law fully into effect. Republicans in Congress have also continued with legislative efforts to support school teachers, give parents new options, and improve education for all students at all stages of life.

THE REPUBLICAN VISION FOR EDUCATION

Republicans are focusing on accountability & results. We want to:

• Ensure every child reads by the third grade
• Give parents more information and options about their children’s education

Republicans are focusing on the classroom. We want to:

• Help states and schools put a qualified teacher in every public classroom
• Give teachers and principals the tools to meet the unique needs of every child

A RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT: 22 Months of GOP Action to Improve American Education

In just 22 months, President Bush and Republicans:

• Gave parents report cards on school performance.
• Gave teachers tax relief for out-of-pocket classroom expenses.
• Sent more dollars to the classroom, with fewer strings attached.
• Reformed federal K-12 education programs, requiring accountability for results through annual testing to ensure all children are learning.
• Provided extra help for schools identified as underachieving.
• Shielded teachers, principals and school board members from frivolous lawsuits.
• Gave new options to parents with children in dangerous or chronically underachieving public schools.
• Streamlined federal K-12 education programs from 55 to 45.
• Transformed bilingual education programs to focus on helping LEP children learn English.
• Tripled funding for reading programs proven to work.
• Increased federal teacher quality aid by 35 percent over last Clinton budget.
• Boosted aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).
• Dramatically increased funding for special education.
• Raised the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,000 per student, the highest level ever.
• Saw the lowest student loan interest rate in history take effect, produced by a GOP Congress.
• Expanded education savings accounts to allow parents to save up to $2,000 a year tax-free for K-12 expenses.
• Worked with Education Secretary Rod Paige to clean up waste & abuse at the U.S. Department of Education.
• Provided more than $200 million to help start nearly 700 new charter schools and assist more than 1,000 existing ones.

Passed by House Republicans; awaiting action by Democrat-controlled Senate:

• Boost student loan forgiveness from $5,000 to $17,500 for Americans who become school teachers.
• Give educators new tools by improving education research.
• Expand Internet-based education opportunities for students in higher education

Blocked by congressional Democrats:

• Give low-income parents an above-the-line tax deduction for K-12 educational expenses.
• Reduce red tape in higher education for students and colleges.

HIGHLIGHTS: Republican Education Accomplishments, January 2001-October 2002

Following is a summary of the Republican education achievements of the 107^th Congress (January 2001-October 2002):

President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Education Reforms. On December 13, 2001, by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 381-41, the House approved President George W. Bush’s education reform legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1). The measure is a comprehensive overhaul of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) built on principles of accountability for results; local control and flexibility; expanded parental choice; and funding for what works.

• Empowers parents, voters, and taxpayers with data about public schools – allowing "sunshine" into the public education system and increasing accountability for results.
  
  
• Provides immediate new options for parents of students in thousands of underachieving and/or dangerous public schools across America.
  
  
• Streamlines the number of federal K-12 education programs from 55 to 45 and requires that 95 percent of all federal funds reach the local level.
  
  
• Expands local control and gives all 50 states and every local school district new freedom and flexibility in the use of federal education dollars.
  
  
• Requires accountability for results through annual testing of students in federally-funded public schools in reading and math in grades 3-8.
  
  
• Focuses on effective, proven methods of reading instruction backed by scientific research.
  
  
• Calls for states to have a highly-qualified teacher in every public classroom by 2005.
  
  
• Strengthens special education by giving new tools to parents of children with special needs, along with new resources to help schools recruit qualified special education teachers and improve early reading instruction.

Education Funding – Tied to Education Reform. President Bush and Republicans in Congress worked together during the 107^th Congress to provide the resources for education reform while funding a nation at war. As a result of No Child Left Behind, public schools in the U.S. this year are benefiting from the largest amount of federal funding ever provided for elementary and secondary education. Never in the history of the United States has the federal government invested so much in our nation’s schools. The No Child Left Behind reforms are tied to the largest single-year increase in history for federal elementary and secondary education funding – a 27 percent increase ($4.8 billion).

• Title I Aid for Disadvantaged Schools & Students – Federal aid to disadvantaged students and schools is being increased dramatically as a result of President Bush’s reforms, and the President’s FY2003 Budget continues that commitment. The President’s FY2003 Budget provides a $1 billion increase in Title I grants next year – on top of the $1.6 billion increase provided this year – focusing resources on the highest-poverty school districts. Under the first two years of President Bush’s presidency, we will have seen greater increases in Title I funding than in the previous seven years combined under President Clinton. To see a breakdown of Title I funding increases by state this year as a result of No Child Left Behind, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/107th/education/nclb/statebystate.pdf
  
  
• Reading First – As a result of the No Child Left Behind, hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars are flowing to states and school districts to improve reading instruction using proven methods based on scientific research. Federal funding for reading this year has been more than tripled since the last budget signed by President Clinton, from $300 million in FY2001 to $900 million this year. President Bush's FY2003 Budget, and the budget resolution approved by the House, provides this funding again next year -- along with another $100 million increase, bringing next year's total to more than $1 billion for states and school districts for proven reading instruction. A list of estimated state grants and next year's funding under President Bush's request for Reading First is available at www.ed.gov/PressReleases/01-2002/estimates.html.

• Accountability Systems – The No Child Left Behind Act is not an unfunded mandate. To help states cover the costs of the reform law’s annual testing requirement, more than $385 million is being provided in 2002 for states to use in designing their accountability systems. This funding is maintained in the President’s FY2003 Budget.

• Teacher Quality – As a result of President Bush’s reforms, federal funding for teacher quality programs is being increased 38 percent (by $787 million – to $2.85 billion) this year to help states train, recruit, and retain quality teachers. This historic level of support is maintained in the President’s FY2003 Budget and the budget resolution passed this spring by House Republicans.
  
  
• Troops and Transition to Teaching – No Child Left Behind helps eligible members of the armed forces and mid-career professionals obtain certification as elementary and secondary school teachers as well as vocational teachers through the "Troops to Teachers" and "Transition to Teaching" programs.

• Bilingual and Immigrant Education – The No Child Left Behind Act dramatically transforms the federal bilingual education and immigrant education programs, changing them from programs focused on teaching limited English proficient children in their native languages to a single new program focused on ensuring such children learn English.

Fixing and Funding Special Education. Laying the groundwork for much-needed reform to improve results for children with special needs, President Bush and congressional Republicans this year are providing an historic increase of $1.2 billion in grants to states and communities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ensuring that the federal government is now paying a larger share (16.5 percent) of the cost of special education than at any other time since 1975. On top of this increase, the President’s FY2003 Budget calls for another $1 billion increase for IDEA grants to states and communities, increasing the federal government’s share to 18 percent. The budget resolution passed by House Republicans in spring 2002 includes the $1 billion increase requested by the President and calls for full funding of IDEA within 10 years. House Democrats voted against the resolution but did not offer an alternative of their own.

House Republicans also joined Education Secretary Rod Paige in drawing attention to chronic problems in the current IDEA system that have caused countless children to be wrongly placed in special education classes, a problem that particularly affects minority children. House Republicans defeated a partisan effort by Senate Democrats and Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT) that would have indefinitely delayed reform of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by turning special education into a new federal entitlement spending program.

GOP Special Education Reform Principles. House Republicans, led by Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Mike Castle (R-DE), in June 2002 unveiled a series of principles Republicans believe should guide reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The GOP principles include:

• Increasing accountability and improving education results for students with disabilities.
• Reducing the paperwork burden.
• Improving early intervention strategies.
• Reducing overidentification/misidentification of nondisabled children, including minority youth.
• Encouraging innovative approaches to parental involvement and parental choice.
• Supporting general education and special education teachers.
• Rewarding innovation and improved education results.
• Restoring trust and reducing litigation.
• Ensuring school safety.
• Reforming special education finance and funding.

"Great IDEAs" Website. To facilitate reform and reauthorization of IDEA, Subcommittee Chairman Castle launched the "Great IDEAs" website to gather input from teachers, parents, students and others involved in special education. The website can be accessed at the following link: http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/107th/education/idea/ideacomments/index.htm.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts. The tax relief package signed into law by President Bush in June included expanded Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), championed by the late Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-GA), that allow parents to save up to $2,000 annually for their children’s K-12 education in special tax-free savings accounts. Similar to an education IRA, ESAs for K-12 education were vetoed by President Clinton but included in the original No Child Left Behind proposal and signed into law by President Bush on behalf of parents.

Tax Relief for Teacher Classroom Expenses. Many schoolteachers pay hundreds of dollars a year out of their own pockets for classroom materials such as books, crayons and other items that enrich their students’ learning experiences. President Bush and Republicans took action in 2002 to provide relief and fairness for these teachers. H.R. 3090, the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002, created an above-the-line tax deduction for schoolteachers to help relieve the cost of out-of-pocket classroom expenses. The deduction (unofficially dubbed the “Crayola credit”) covers up to $250 of out-of-pocket expenses. These expenses include books, supplies, computer equipment, supplementary materials and other equipment used by the teacher in the classroom. Anyone who serves as a K-12 teacher, instructor, counselor, principal or aide for at least 900 hours during a school year is eligible. Teachers at public, private, religious and home schools all qualify as long as the school meets the State’s definition of a school.

Lowest Student Loan Interest Rate in History. As a result of changes negotiated by Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) in 1998, federal student loan interest rates dropped to their lowest level in U.S. history on July 1, 2002. Reflecting continuing GOP efforts to make higher education more affordable and accessible, the new rates will result in significant savings for students. On July 1, 2002, interest rates on federal Stafford loans issued on or after July 1, 1998, fell to 4.06 percent, down from a previous level of 5.99 percent. In addition, interest rates on Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) dropped from 6.79 percent to 4.86 percent – the lowest rate ever for PLUS loans.

Helping Poor Schools Attract High-Quality Teachers. On October 1, the House approved H.R. 5091, the "Canceling Loans to Allow School Systems to Attract Classroom Teachers Act (CLASS ACT)," a bill authored by Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to address the nation’s growing shortage of qualified teachers by dramatically increasing the maximum federal student loan forgiveness amount for Americans who enter the teaching profession and teach in disadvantaged schools. The Graham legislation will help schools in disadvantaged communities recruit highly qualified teachers, providing them with additional support in meeting the objectives of the No Child Left Behind Act. The bill increases the maximum level of federal student loan forgiveness for teachers from the current maximum of $5,000 to a new level of $17,500. The bill places a priority for providing loan forgiveness to those teaching special education, mathematics, or science, or those teaching in disadvantaged schools that need help in recruiting highly qualified teachers.

Record Support for Pell Grants in Higher Education. In August 2002, President Bush signed an emergency spending bill supported by Republicans in Congress that includes an additional $1 billion in funding for Pell Grants, the federal program that helps make it possible for 4.4 million low-income U.S. students to realize the dream of a higher education. The Pell Grant program in 2002 faced a significant funding shortfall, which Republicans called for congressional action to address. The wartime budget proposed by President Bush for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2003) maintains the maximum Pell Grant at an historic high of $4,000.

Student Loan Relief for U.S. Military Reservists. In October 2001, the House passed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act (H.R. 3086) by a vote of 415-0. The Senate passed its version (S. 1793) of the measure by unanimous consent on December 14; the House passed the S. 1793 by voice vote on December 19, and President Bush signed the bill into law shortly thereafter. The bill, authored by Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), gives the Education Secretary the authority to grant waivers to military reservists who have been called up for active duty, relieving them from making federal student loan payments while they serve the nation’s Armed Forces. A similar authority was granted to the Education Secretary during the Persian Gulf War.

Ensuring School Lunch Eligibility for Military Children. In December 2001, the House passed a bill (H.R. 3216) introduced by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) that modifies the National School Lunch Act to ensure that children of military personnel don’t lose their eligibility for free or reduced-priced meals if their military housing is privatized. Because of an accounting quirk in current law, housing allowances for private housing could be considered income, jeopardizing military children’s school lunch eligibility. The bill ensures these children will be able to continue participating in the school lunch program.

Outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Building on the successful efforts of the GOP Task Force on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) and other members of the Select Education subcommittee have reached out to HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions and other minority-serving schools, laying the groundwork for President Bush’s plans to boost aid to these key institutions. Successful field hearings were held at Oklahoma’s Langston University and Ohio’s Wilberforce University, and the House passed resolutions in the fall of 2002 honoring the contributions of America’s HBCUs and HSIs.

Reducing Red Tape for College Students and Colleges. Rep. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) launched the FED UP project (short for "Upping the Effectiveness of Our Federal Student Aid Programs"), using the Internet to identify and simplify burdensome regulations in the Higher Education Act that work against college students and personnel. The project received approximately 3,000 responses from college officials, administrators, and other personnel who operate America’s institutions of higher learning, laying the groundwork for next year’s reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Bipartisan legislation was introduced in June 2002 reflecting many of the changes recommended to congressional leaders. Unfortunately, House Democrat leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) blocked the legislation on the House floor. A number of Democrats defied Gephardt’s order and joined Republicans in voting "yes" on the bill.

Ending Waste, Fraud & Abuse at the Education Department. Oversight hearings by Select Education Subcommittee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) during the spring of 2001 revealed that the U.S. Department of Education experienced at least $450 million in waste, fraud and abuse during the last three years of the Clinton Administration while failing three consecutive department-wide audits. Hoekstra and other House Republicans have pushed forcefully for accountability at the Department, and new Education Secretary Rod Paige has acted swiftly and decisively to develop guidelines to combat the waste, fraud, and abuse that occurred under the previous administration. In October 2001, Paige announced a comprehensive action plan for putting the U.S. Department of Education’s management and financial house in order based on more than 600 separate recommendations.

Expanding Internet Learning Opportunities in Higher Education. In October 2001, the House approved the bipartisan Internet Equity and Education Act (H.R. 1992), legislation authored by Rep. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) that expands Internet-based and non-standard term educational opportunities for postsecondary students, while maintaining the integrity of the federal student aid programs. The measure, which was passed by a vote of 354-70, would allow all learners to take full advantage of what the newest technologies can provide for their education. The Democrat-controlled Senate refused to take action on the measure.

More Freedom & Resources for Communities to Fight Juvenile Crime. Ending six years of congressional gridlock on efforts to reauthorize federal juvenile justice programs, the House in October 2002 passed legislation by Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-PA) to give states and local governments more freedom to reduce juvenile crime. The Greenwood legislation consolidates a number of existing juvenile justice programs into a single, flexible juvenile crime and delinquency prevention block grant for states and local communities.

Improving Education Research. On April 30, 2002, the House approved bipartisan legislation authored by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) to help more students learn reading, mathematics and other essential skills and help educators implement the No Child Left Behind reforms by improving the quality of critical education research. The bill overhauls the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). After a period of delay, the Democrat-controlled Senate has signaled new willingness to act on OERI reform and Republicans hope President Bush will be given the chance to sign legislation into law this year.

Exploring Solutions to Rising College Costs. The House Education & the Workforce Committee held bipartisan hearings in 2002 on the alarming rate at which college costs have risen in recent years, focusing in part on a disturbing report by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance entitled Empty Promises: The Myth of College Access in America. According to the report, due to financial barriers, nearly one-half of all college-qualified, low- and moderate-income high school graduates fully prepared to attend a four-year college will be unable to do so, and 170,000 of these students will attend no college at all. Republicans are using the information gathered this year to lay the groundwork for next year’s reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which is expected to focus in part on expanding access to college for all Americans.

Honoring Catholic Schools. On January 29, 2002, the House passed a resolution authored by Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO) to recognize and honor the contributions of America’s Catholic schools. For the 1999-2000 academic year, Catholic schools enrolled more than 2.6 million children in more than 8,000 Catholic schools across the country. The typical student-teacher ratio is 17 to 1.

Honoring Charter Schools. On April 30, 2002, the House approved a resolution by Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL) honoring the 10^th anniversary of the opening of the nation’s first charter school in Minnesota, and recognizing the contributions charter schools have made to strengthen America’s public school system. The resolution, passed in honor of National Charter Schools Week, recognizes that charter schools have proven to be successful by giving parents the right to choose the best education possible for their children and providing innovative practices with proven results.

For further information about House GOP efforts to improve education for America’s children and expand choices for parents, please visit the House Education and the Workforce Committee website at http://edworkforce.house.gov/.