Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard - Proudly Serving California's 34th District

Share This Page Slashdot Del.icio.us Google Digg Reddit Newsvine Furl Yahoo Facebook

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec 8, 2011 - Today Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard introduced H.R. 3614, the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act of 2011 (ATTAIN Act) to help prepare students to meet the needs of 21st century employers. 

"I introduced this legislation because I believe that whether students are preparing for college or planning to go straight into the workforce, we must provide them with the high tech skills employers increasingly demand to meet the challenges of the 21st Century," said Rep. Roybal-Allard. "My bill will help to ensure that students are more engaged, eager to learn, and ultimately better prepared to meet the challenges of today’s high-tech and competitive global workforce.” 

The ATTAIN Act would amend the current “Enhancing Education Through Technology” program in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to better target federal education technology resources to raise student achievement, ensure high quality teaching and improve our education system while ensuring our students are college and career ready and prepared to compete in the digital economy.  The bill authorizes up to $1 billion in annual funding to train teachers, purchase education technology hardware and software, and to support student technological literacy.

Under the bill’s provisions, if Congress appropriates more than $300 million annually for ATTAIN, 60 percent would be used to purchase new technology and train teachers on how to effectively use these new tools.

The remaining 40 percent of ATTAIN funds would be distributed through competitive grants that encourage schools to undertake comprehensive, technology based reform initiatives that have been proven to increase student achievement.

However, should Congress appropriate $300 million or less for this program annually, the Secretary of Education would allocate the entirety of the funding to conduct a competition and award grants to those states with the most promising initiatives to improve K-12 education through the use of technology.  This provision is intended to ensure that there is adequate funding to impact student outcomes during lean fiscal years.

It is my hope that through this competition states and districts across the country will be compelled to evaluate their technology use and work to integrate it effectively throughout all classrooms, and especially those that are currently underserved by education technology.