I
have always believed that how we educate children in Arizona should
be decided in Arizona. Traditionally, the primary responsibility
for education has been vested in state and local governments,
with the federal government playing an important but supplementary
role. Increasingly, however, education has come to be seen as
a national problem. The President and Congress have responded
to public sentiment by increasing spending on education markedly
while putting into place a new framework – the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLBA) – aimed at ensuring that the new
money produces results.
This year, the federal government will send
the states more than $23.3 billion to implement the NCLBA –
an increase of 40 percent, or $7 billion, above what was provided
for K-12 improvement during fiscal 2001, the last year before
the NCLBA was enacted. Specifically:
- Title I, which aids America’s most
disadvantaged students, will be increased to more than $12.7
billion – nearly $4 billion, or 45 percent, more than
when NCLBA was initially signed into law.
- Reading First and Early Reading First
grants – the new initiatives President Bush sought so
that every child learns to read – will be allocated $1.1
billion this year, more than four times what was spent on targeted
reading improvement methods before enactment of the NCLBA.
- Grants to states to recruit, train, and
retain highly qualified teachers will be funded at $2.91 billion
– up 35 percent since 2001.
The federal government has also committed
to ensure that all disabled children receive an appropriate education.
Since the change of congressional leadership that took place 11
years ago, Congress has dramatically increased spending for grants
to states under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
– by 360 percent. The share of special education costs borne
by the federal government has increased from 7.3 percent of total
costs to 18.7 percent in since 1995.
In Arizona, an estimated 852,612 public school
children, 1,552 public schools and some 44,562 teachers will benefit
from that additional IDEA funding. Funds for Title I will amount
to 84.1 percent more than in 2001. The total amount of funding
available to improve education in our state will have increased
$5.7 million over last year alone.
But long and disappointing experience has
demonstrated that money alone cannot produce improved educational
outcomes. The NCLBA, therefore, moves to assure accountability
by: 1) requiring that student progress is measured during the
critical years during which many children fall behind (states,
not the federal government, determine what tests should be used);
2) providing that there are real consequences for schools that
persistently fail to make progress; and 3) giving state and local
education leaders the administrative flexibility they need to
make improvements.
Perhaps the most important change still needed
is to expand the choices available to American families, while
enhancing both the flexibility needed for innovation and the accountability
needed to get results.
The House and Senate will soon begin work
on legislation to fund Department of Education programs in FY2007,
and I expect that the final version of the measure will build
on the historic progress already achieved.
Congress will also be renewing a number of
important statutes that have not been substantially altered in
five years or more: the Higher Education Act, the Head Start statute,
and the law governing vocational education programs.
Here are some of the other initiatives I’ve
undertaken with respect to education in Arizona and around the
country:
- Responding to concerns that resources
were not increasing as fast as enrollments, I worked with other
Senators from states with rapidly growing populations to include
in the NCLBA a provision directing the Department of Education
to allot more Title I funds to states, like Arizona, with growing
numbers of youngsters.
- I led the fight to ensure that the infrastructure
needs of Indian and military schools would be addressed before
the federal government undertook any new effort to directly
finance school construction (a job traditionally handled by
state and local governments).
- I have sponsored and supported legislation
to implement notable choice and competition measures at the
federal level – measures that trace their roots to Arizona’s
own laws.
- And I am particularly proud of an initiative
I undertook that keeps in operation the Thomas J. Pappas School
in Phoenix. A bill passed by the Senate's education committee
would almost certainly have forced the state of Arizona to shut
down the Pappas School, an institution that has enjoyed a remarkable
record of success in meeting the special needs of homeless students.
I drafted an amendment to ensure that Pappas remained open and
eligible for federal homeless education funds; it was included
in the final version of NCLBA and is now law.