Education Reform

Americans believe the most important factor in improving America's schools is not just funding, but high standards and accountability for results. Congress has provided both the resources and the reforms Americans want in education. With federal funding for public education doubling over the past eight years, along with a roadmap that demands results, as well as increased local control, America’s education system has began to improve. Additionally important, reforms are in place so that more children are being given the opportunity to receive a quality education. Reading skills are improving, schools and administrators are being held to higher standards and increased levels of accountability, and more highly qualified teachers are being trained and prepared to enter the classroom to meet the needs of our students.

Expanding Parental Choice in their Children’s Education

Children and parents should not have to settle for schools that continually do not provide students a quality education, and all parents should be able to make decisions about their children’s education. I am working to ensure that all parents have real choices when it comes to education for their children.

In addition to providing parents with new opportunities, school choice strengthens public schools by promoting competition within the educational system. Recent accomplishments that have given parents more choices for their children's education include: the groundbreaking D.C. School Choice Incentive Program; new options like the ability to transfer students to a better-performing public or charter school or receive additional services like private tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act; and the ability for greater involvement and new services for students in special education. I will work in the 109th Congress to build on these new options for parents, and ensure that all parents have the opportunity to choose what is best for their children's education.

Supporting Quality Teachers in our Schools

In recent years, we have emphasized the need for a quality teacher in every classroom. I have supported a tax deduction for teachers' out-of-pocket classroom expenses dubbed the "Crayola Credit" a dramatic expansion of loan forgiveness for teachers of key subjects who serve in needy schools. I have also supported greater clarity and flexibility for states in determining how teachers can become highly qualified, including guidance for special education teachers.

Opening the Door of a College Education to More Americans

The Pell Grant program is the cornerstone of federal need-based aid. To ensure the program continues to assist needy students, Republicans intend to strengthen the program through steps such as: enhanced Pell Grants for students who complete a rigorous high school curriculum; year-round Pell Grants for students wishing to complete their education more quickly; and a repeal of the tuition-sensitivity provisions that needlessly limit Pell awards for some of the neediest students and provide an incentive for very low-cost schools to increase tuition costs.

House Provides Unprecedented Education Funding Combined with Significant Reforms

Simply spending more money is not the answer to the problems facing America’s schools. High standards, accountability for results, and increased parental involvement are all essential to improving education and ensuring no child in America is left behind.

Since Republicans took control of the House in 1995, federal education funding has increased significantly. Funding for the U.S. Department of Education has increased by nearly 150 percent from $23 billion in FY 1996 to $57 billion in FY 2005.

• No Child Left Behind. States and local school districts are expected to receive $24.4 billion in federal funds in FY 2005 to help implement the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), accounting for a forty percent increase in federal elementary and secondary education funding since President Bush signed NCLB into law.

• Title I aid for disadvantaged students. Title I aid for disadvantaged students, the cornerstone of NCLB, has increased more during the first two years of President George W. Bush’s administration than it did during the previous eight years combined under President Bill Clinton. In FY 2005, Title I received $12.7 billion, an increase of forty-five percent since NCLB was signed into law.

• Special education. The federal government is not yet paying its fair share of the cost of special education as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Fresh off of three consecutive increases in IDEA funding under President Bush, special education grants are funded at $11.4 billion in FY 2005, representing the highest level in history and over three times the amount provided in 1995. Throughout the Clinton Administration, Republicans in Congress routinely provided more money for special education than President Clinton requested.

• Teacher quality. When President Bush signed NCLB into law in 2002, it signified a 38 percent increase in federal funding for teacher quality – an increase of $787 million over President Clinton’s last budget. In FY 2005, states are provided $2.91 billion for professional development programs to provide states and school districts with tools to improve teacher quality, in addition to $179 million to increase the number of teachers trained in the fields of math and science.

• Pell Grants. The maximum Pell Grant award is funded at $4,050 in FY 2005. In recent years, Republicans in Congress, later working with President Bush, have increased the maximum Pell Grant award by sixty-four percent -- from $2,470 in FY 1996 to $4,050 in FY 2005.
  

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