Education
During the 111th Congress, I have proudly supported the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget, which allocates $46.7 billion for education, with the majority of funding directed toward early childhood, elementary, and secondary education. This budget includes an increase over Fiscal Year 2009 of $1 billion in school improvement grants, and $500 million to early childhood grants. Additionally, $300 million will be allocated for an “Early Childhood Learning Challenge Fund” to supplement the successes of Head-Start and other early childhood programs. North Carolina will also receive an increase over Fiscal Year 2009 of more than $350,000 in grants to improve teacher quality though additional education and training. As this Congress continues, I will keep working toward the important goal of ensuring all students have access to quality education. Ensuring that every child in America has access to a high quality education is one of our nation’s most fundamental issues, and we must strengthen our educational system to enable our children to foster the knowledge, curiosity and social skills necessary to be successful. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed into law in 2001, amending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). NCLB was implemented to reach several goals including: improving proficiency of primary and secondary students, ensuring that teachers are adequately trained, providing flexibility of school choice to parents, and increasing accountability measures for state and local school districts.
Head Start
As a product of the Head Start program, I fully support the program’s goals, and I will work during my time in Congress to ensure its success. I believe all children deserve full access to a high-quality education, and participation in Head Start is the first step to ensuring that all children are equipped to succeed during their first years in school, regardless of their financial status. Head Start has a proven track record for success, and I am committed to ensuring that the program has adequate resources to continue to provide this vital service to our nation’s children.
Head Start is a federally funded early childhood education program designed to serve low-income and underserved populations. The program aims to provide preschool-age children educational, social, developmental, health and nutritional services needed in preparation for entrance to kindergarten. Head Start funds are directed to over 1,600 local organizations and non profit agencies, so the program is directed on a local level rather than on the state level. The Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for administering the program. In 2007, over 908,000 students participated in Head Start.
Community and faith-based organizations play an important role in expanding access to Head Start. This is why I introduced, and successfully passed, an amendment to the Head Start reauthorization bill commending these organizations for their role in expanding and continuing Head Start programs in our communities. Additionally, my amendment states that community and faith-based organizations will continue to be eligible to participate in Head Start programming. H.R. 1429 was signed into law on December 12, 2007.
No Child Left Behind
Since I have been elected to Congress, I have met with teachers, principals, administrators, and parents from across our district to discuss the impact this law has had in the schools of Western North Carolina. Their contributions were invaluable in identifying problems with the current policy and ways to improve NCLB to make it sustainable and successful. While the many individuals that I have met with agree that the purpose and goals of NCLB are good, the way the system is structured does not adequately meet these goals. Based on their suggestions, I have had several meetings with Chairman George Miller of the Committee on Education and Labor and identified the following areas of improvement:
Growth Models: The current accountability system requires schools to judge success or failure on whether students pass the tests for their given grade. Unfortunately, there can a significant amount of progress made in a year that is not adequately reflected in the test scores. For example, if at the beginning of the fifth grade, a student reads at a second grade level, but at the end of the year reads at a fourth grade level, that student made significant progress during that year. But if the student fails the fifth grade test, that student is marked as failing. This does not truly measure progress of the student, and states should be allowed to use growth models that give credit to schools with demonstrated progress of both low-performing and high-performing students. Increased funding would help states design and implement the data and technology used for growth models.
More Than Test Scores: There is too much emphasis on standardized testing. As a result, teachers feel pressured to “teach to the test” in order to meet the passing requirements. Instead, states should be allowed to gather evidence of student progress and school success from multiple sources such as graduation rates and real-time classroom tests that allow teachers to adjust their instruction as necessary.
Improve Test Quality: Congress must address concerns regarding the fairness, validity, reliability, and appropriateness of tests for the students, particularly for special education students and English Language Learners. In exchange for increased resources for developing tests, states should be required to improve the quality of tests to better measure what students know and what their teachers can do to improve classroom instruction.
Special Needs: Assessment and accountability systems must be adjusted so that the academic progress of students with disabilities can be accurately measured and reported. NCLB currently requires that most students with disabilities be assessed at grade level, rather than at instructional level, which creates disparity between the law and some students’ Individual Education Plans (IEPs).
Teacher Quality: We need to build and evaluate the teaching profession by providing teachers and principals with the support they need to succeed. I believe this support includes higher salaries, career ladders, and mentoring. It is also imperative that we help close the achievement gap by closing the teacher quality gap – ensuring that poor and minority students have access to high quality teachers.
Funding: One of the most fundamental concerns I have heard from school administrators is that it is impossible to implement all NCLB requirements without increased funding. We need to guarantee that schools have the resources they need to ensure all students are able to succeed. It is unfair to place new standards on schools without providing them with the resources to implement these standards. The result of this unfunded mandate is that many schools are forced to cut nonacademic classes, such as art and music.
As Congress works to reauthorize the NCLB Act, I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind, and continue to talk to those individuals that are affected by this legislation. Teachers, parents, and administrators are an invaluable resource, and I will continue to keep an open dialogue with them as we continue to work on this legislation in Congress.
Higher Education
The rising cost of college tuition is placing a tremendous strain on America’s working families. Since 2001 tuition and fees have increased at an astounding rate. At the same time, interest rates on student loans have also risen, making a college education unaffordable for many deserving students. No American student should be denied a college education because of cost, and it is one of my goals to help pass legislation that makes college more affordable and accessible for thousands of students across Western North Carolina.
In the 110th Congress, I supported H.R. 2669, the College Cost Reduction Act, which increases college financial aid by $20 billion over the next five years. This legislation increases the maximum value of the Pell Grant scholarship by $1,090 over the next five years, reaching $5,400 by 2012, up from $4,050 in 2006, thus restoring the Pell Grant’s purchasing power. Roughly 5.5 million low and moderate-income students will benefit from this increase. Additionally, H.R. 2669 cuts student interest rates in half, reducing them from 6.8% to 3.4% over the next four years. H.R. 2669 became public law on September 27, 2007.
In the 110th Congress I also voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965. HEA authorizes the federal government’s major higher education programs which provide aid to students and institutions of higher education, as well as providing support services to less advantaged students and students seeking educational opportunities internationally. The last reauthorization passed in 1998. This legislation, also called the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, is the largest federal investment in student aid since the G.I. Bill of 1944. Over $20 billion will be invested in federal financial aid and institutional aid.
Additionally, this legislation streamlines the federal financial aid application process, makes textbook costs more manageable, allows students to access year-round Pell Grants, increases aid to veterans and military families, ensures equal college opportunities for students with disabilities, and regulates the student loan market.
Most recently, in the 111th Congress, I was proud to join my colleagues in the House and Senate by passing into law H.R. 1388, the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. The GIVE Act will increase funding for AmeriCorps, establish new service programs, and provide measures of student loan forgiveness and increased higher education grants to participants in these service programs. Participants will also be eligible to receive the maximum authorized Pell Grant amount, which will help fund their college education. This legislation also establishes a Summer of Service program to provide a $500 college scholarship to middle and high school students who volunteer in their communities.
The global economy of the 21st Century requires a college-educated workforce. By helping more hard-working families send their children to college, we will be able to create that workforce right here in our mountains. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as I have an opportunity to act on legislation dealing with the affordability of higher education.