Education- A Passport to a Brighter Future

To see video of Congresswoman Lee speaking on this issue, please click here.

 “It is time that our policy and funding priorities take a new direction for our children. That means investing in education. When we do that, we invest in our future.”

                                                             -Congresswoman Barbara Lee

The Congresswoman’s support of education revolves around several central goals: providing ample funding for public schools; ensuring equal access to education for every student; expanding support services for education; and ensuring lifetime learning – making early education (pre-school, Head Start) and higher education accessible for everyone.

Next year, the 111th Congress will also consider reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The original NCLB was intended to address the laudable goals of maximizing student achievement and closing disparate learning gaps between our young people.

However, the federal mandates imposed by NCLB to reduce class sizes, expand early childhood education and after-school programs, and improve professional development for teachers and education have largely gone unfunded and as a result, have overburdened our school systems with unachievable goals.  Although NCLB was also designed to raise the reading and writing levels of America's children and provide measurable means of testing those abilities, it has instead forced teachers to "teach to the test" in order to meet the mandates of the legislation.

These and other gaps in the legislation require thorough scrutiny and reform as Congress considers ways to improve the NCLB.  Congresswoman Lee will continue to fight for better education for our Nation’s children as discussions on the reauthorization of this important legislation get underway.

As a member of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee, Congresswoman Lee has been instrumental in:

• Expanding access to higher education through increasing Pell Grants: Congresswoman Lee helped craft the Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) LHHS Appropriations bill, which will help 5.7 million low– and middle–income families pay for college by investing an additional $3.1 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $169 over 2008, to $4,410. With additional mandatory funding under the College Cost Reduction Act, the Congress will have increased the maximum Pell Grant by $850 since 2006. 
• Increasing funding and access to after school programs: The FY09 LHHS bill rejects the President’s $281 million cut to after-school programs, which would end services for as many as 1.1 million disadvantaged children. Instead, the bill provides a $50 million increase over last year to $1.1 billion for after–school centers.
• Increased funding for Head Start: The FY09 LHHS bill expands Federal support for early childhood education, which has an enormous payoff to society. It includes $7.1 billion for Head Start services for nearly 900,000 low–income children, which is $242 million over last year.

Sponsored Legislation

• H.R. 171: The Student Support Act – Requires the Secretary of Education to make matching grants to states so that schools can hire additional school-based mental health counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers to meet minimum ratios to students recommended by the Institute of Medicine. 
• H.R. 176: The Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act of 2007 – Authorizes students from the Caribbean to participate in an educational exchange program in the U.S (Passed the House 7/31/07). 
• H.R. 172: The Community Partners Next Door Act of 2007 – Amends the National Housing Act to provide a 50% discount for teachers, teacher assistants, administrators, and public safety officers purchasing a primary residence, providing down payment assistance and increasing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan limit for purchases in high-cost areas.

Co-Sponsored Legislation (partial list)

• H.R. 1779:  The Loan Forgiveness for Head Start Teachers Act of 2007 – Amends the Higher Education Act to extend loan forgiveness to Head Start Teachers with a baccalaureate or graduate degree that have been employed for 5 years or more. 
• H.R. 1971: Teach for America Act – Expands the Teach for America to recruit and train more teachers.
• H.R. 3036: The No Child Left Inside Act of 2007 – Expands federal funding for programs designed to provide environmental education and training to students and teachers.
• H.R. 6104: Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Act of 2008 – Improves coordination of the Nation's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education initiatives, and provides incentives to states to expand such programs.

For more information contact the Office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee at 202-225-2661.