An original bill to improve learning and teaching by providing a national framework for education reform; to promote the research, consensus building, and systemic changes needed to ensure equitable educational opportunities and high levels of educational achievement for all American students; to provide a framework for reauthorization of all Federal education programs; to promote the development and adoption of a voluntary national system of skill standards and certifications; and for other purposes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Title I: National Education Goals
Title II: National Education Reform Leadership, Standards,
and Assessments
Part A: National Education Goals Panel
Part B: National Education Standards and Improvement
Council
Part C: Leadership in Educational Technology
Part D: Authorization of Appropriations
Title III: State and Local Education Systemic Improvement
Title IV: Miscellaneous
Title V: National Skill Standards Board
Title VI: Safe Schools
Part A: Safe Schools Program
Part B: State Leadership Activities to Promote Safe
Schools
Title VII: Midnight Basketball League Training and Partnership
Title VIII: Youth Violence in Schools and Communities
Title IX: Educational Research and Improvement
Part A: Office of Educational Research and Improvement
Part B: Educational Improvement Programs
Part C: Definitions
Title X: Parents as Teachers
Title XI: Gun-Free Schools
Title XII: Environmental Tobacco Smoke
Goals 2000: Educate America Act - Title I: National Education Goals - (Sec. 102) Sets forth national goals for education, to be achieved by the year 2000, in the following categories: (1) school readiness; (2) school completion; (3) student achievement and citizenship (including access to physical and health education); (4) mathematics and science; (5) adult literacy and lifelong learning; (6) safe, disciplined, and drug-free schools; (7) parental participation; and (8) teacher education and professional development. Sets forth specific objectives for each goal.
Title II: National Education Reform Leadership Standards, and Assessments - Part A: National Education Goals Panel - Establishes the National Education Goals Panel in the executive branch.
(Sec. 203) Requires the Panel to issue an annual national report card on progress toward achieving the national education goals and on actions that Federal, State, and local governments should take to enhance such progress.
(Sec. 207) Directs the Panel to support the work of its Resource and Technical Planning Groups on School Readiness to improve methods of assessing the readiness of all children for school.
Part B: National Education Standards and Improvement Council - Establishes the National Education Standards and Improvement Council in the executive branch.
(Sec. 213) Requires the Council to develop and certify (subject to Panel review and approval) voluntary national standards for content areas, student performance, and fair opportunity-to-learn. Authorizes the Council to certify any such standards presented by a State, if these are consistent with the national standards.
Directs the Council to certify a system of assessments voluntarily presented by a State if such system meets certain criteria, including coverage of all students, especially those with disabilities or limited English proficiency. Prohibits such a system from being used to make decisions regarding graduation, grade promotion, or retention of students for five years after enactment of this Act.
(Sec. 218) Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make a competitive grant or grants to a consortium of various individuals and organizations to develop voluntary national opportunity-to-learn standards.
Part C: Leadership in Education Technology - Directs the Secretary to carry out activities for Federal leadership in educational technology, including: (1) a national long-range technology plan; and (2) assistance to States to plan effectively for the use of technology in all schools.
(Sec. 223) Amends the Department of Education Organization Act to establish an Office of Educational Technology.
(Sec. 226) Amends the Training Technology Transfer Act of 1988 to transfer the Office of Training Technology Transfer (currently in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement) to the Office of Educational Technology. Authorizes appropriations.
Part D: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for the Panel, the Council, the opportunity-to-learn development grants, and leadership in educational technology activities.
Title III: State and Local Education Systemic Improvement - Establishes a five-year grant program for State and local education systemic improvement.
(Sec. 303) Authorizes appropriations.
(Sec. 306) Sets forth requirements for State improvement plans, including strategies for: (1) improving teaching and learning (including standards for content, student performance, and opportunity-to-learn); (2) system governance and management; (3) parental and community support and involvement; (4) State system-wide improvement; and (5) promoting bottom-up reform.
(Sec. 309) Requires State education agencies (SEAs) to make competitive subgrants for: (1) local reform, to LEAs; and (2) preservice teacher education and professional development activities, to consortia of LEAs, higher education institutions, private nonprofit organizations, or combinations of these, through a peer-review process. Requires that at least: (1) 65 percent of local reform subgrants be awarded to LEAs with a greater percentage or number of disadvantaged children than the statewide average; and (2) 50 percent of subgrant funds be made available by an LEA to schools with a special need for assistance.
(Sec. 310) Provides for availability of information and training to private elementary and secondary schools.
(Sec. 311) Authorizes the Secretary to waive requirements and related regulations of specified Federal laws relating to education upon request of SEAs, LEAs, and schools if such requirements impede their ability to carry out the State or local education improvement plans, and if other conditions are met.
Education Flexibility Partnership Demonstration Act - Requires the Secretary to carry out an education flexibility demonstration program wherein up to six designated States may waive certain statutory or regulatory requirements.
(Sec. 312) Requires annual progress reports from States to the Secretary, and biennial reports by the Secretary to the Congress.
Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to and contracts with various entities to assist SEAs and LEAs in achieving a greater degree of equity in distribution of financial resources for education among LEAs in the State. Authorizes development and dissemination of models and materials useful to States in revising their school finance systems.
(Sec. 313) Authorizes the Secretary to provide for national leadership activities, including technical assistance, integration of standards, innovative programs, assessment, data-gathering, research, evaluation, and information-dissemination. Reserves funds for grants to urban and rural LEAs with large numbers of concentrations of students economically disadvantaged or with limited English proficiency, to assist in school improvement plans development and implementation.
(Sec. 314) Provides for assistance under this title for outlying areas, Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, and Department of Defense schools.
(Sec. 315) Provides that standards, assessments, and systems of assessments described in a State improvement plan submitted in accordance with specified provisions of this title shall not be required to be certified by the Council.
(Sec. 316) Directs the Secretary to award grants for State planning for improving student achievement through integration of technology into the curriculum. Authorizes appropriations.
Title IV: Miscellaneous - Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the use of funds under title III to directly or indirectly benefit any school other than a public school.
(Sec. 402) Prohibits construing this Act to supersede specified provisions of the Department of Education Organization Act or to mandate for a State, LEA, or school: (1) teaching values or establishing school-based clinics as a condition for funding; (2) limitations on class size; (3) a Federal teacher certification system; (4) teacher instructional practices; (5) equalized spending per pupil; (6) national school building standards; (7) curriculum content; or (8) any curriculum framework, instructional material, examination, assessment, or system of assessments for private, religious, or home schools.
(Sec. 403) Expresses the Senate's condemnation of a speech by Khalid Abdul Mohammed at Kean College.
(Sec. 404) Prohibits construing this Act to authorize any Federal mandates, direction, or control of a State, LEA, or school's curriculm, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or to mandate State or local spending or incurring costs not paid for under this Act.
(Sec. 405) Prohibits Department of Education funding of any State or LEA with a policy of denying or preventing participation in constitutionally protected individual voluntary prayer in public schools. Prohibits the United States or any State or LEA from requiring any person to participate in prayer or influencing the form or content of such prayer.
(Sec. 406) Expresses the sense of the Senate that LEAs should encourage a brief period of daily silence for students for specified non-prayer purposes.
(Sec. 407) Expresses the sense of the Senate that the Federal Government should provide States and communities with adequate resources under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
(Sec. 408) Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 with respect to a matching funds requirement for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
(Sec. 409) Forgives certain overpayments to Colfax County, New Mexico, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
(Sec. 410) Directs the Secretary to arrange with the National Academy of Sciences for a study of the inclusion of children with disabilities in GOALS 2000 school reform activities.
(Sec. 411) Expresses the sense of the Congress that Federal elementary and secondary education assistance programs should include authorizations for establishing mentoring, peer counseling, and peer tutoring programs.
(Sec. 412) Expresses the sense of the Senate that States should develop their own content and performance standards in academic areas as part of State reform plans.
(Sec. 413) Expresses the sense of the Senate with respect to encouragement of State-sponsored higher education trust fund savings plans through Federal income tax incentives.
(Sec. 414) Amends the Job Training Partnership Act to revise summer youth employment and training program design to authorize academic enrichment (as well as remedial education) activities. Adds to required services basic education and preemployment training, integration of work and learning, and educational linkages. Prohibits private actions by participants to obtain services described in the assessment or service strategy.
(Sec. 415) Reaffirms that responsibility for control of education is reserved to the States and local school systems and other State instrumentalities and that no Federal action under this Act would reduce, modify, or undercut such responsibility.
(Sec. 416) Amends the General Education Provisions Act to revise provisions for protection of pupil rights. Directs the Secretary to establish or designate an office and review board to enforce such rights.
(Sec. 417) Requires the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education to ensure that all federally funded programs for distributing contraceptive devices to unemancipated minors develop procedures to encourage family participation.
(Sec. 418) Prohibits Department of Education denial of funds under this or any other Act to any State or LEA because it has adopted a constitutional policy relative to prayer in public school.
Title V: National Skill Standards Board - National Skill Standards Act of 1994 - (Sec. 503) Establishes a National Skill Standards Board.
(Sec. 504) Directs the Board to identify broad clusters of major occupations (except certain construction industry occupations or trades with recognized labor-management-developed apprenticeship standards) that involve one or more industries in the United States and, with respect to each cluster, promote and assist in voluntary development and adoption by specified representative groups of industries, employees, and educational institutions of: (1) skill standards; (2) assessment and certification systems; (3) evaluation systems; (4) information dissemination systems; and (5) revision and updating of systems. Provides for Board endorsement of standards systems that: (1) meet certain requirements; (2) are submitted by entities that meet specified requirements; and (3) meet additional objective criteria published by the Board. Gives the Board research, dissemination, and coordination duties. Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to make grants and contracts to carry out purposes of this title.
(Sec. 507) Authorizes appropriations.
(Sec. 509) Sets forth a sunset provision, but encourages appropriate congressional committees to review Board accomplishments to determine if the repeal date should be postponed.
Title VI: Safe Schools - Part A: Safe Schools Program - Safe Schools Act of 1994 - Directs the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to eligible local educational agencies for projects to achieve National Education Goal Six by helping to ensure that all schools are safe and free of violence.
Authorizes appropriations.
(Sec. 606) Authorizes the Secretary to use certain reserved funds to conduct national leadership activities such as research, program development and evaluation, data collection, public awareness activities, training and technical assistance, information dissemination, and peer review of applications under this Act.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) designate the District of Columbia as a national model city; and (2) provide certain reserved funds to a local educational agency serving the District for a comprehensive program to address school and youth violence.
(Sec. 607) Amends the General Education Provisions Act to require schools to include school safety policy and statistics on the incidents of school violence as part of the information collected and provided under the national cooperative education statistics system.
(Sec. 608) Directs the Attorney General to coordinate Federal assistance under this title and similar programs through the Coordinating council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Part B: State Leadership Activities to Promote Safe Schools - State Leadership Activities to Promote Safe Schools Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to State educational agencies to disseminate to local educational agencies and schools information on successful school violence prevention programs and for other specified purposes. Authorizes appropriations.
Title VII: Midnight Basketball League Training and Partnership - Midnight Basketball League Training and Partnership Act - Amends the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to establish midnight basketball league training and partnership programs incorporating employment counseling and training and other educational activities for residents of public housing and federally assisted housing.
(Sec. 702) Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish a related advisory committee; and (2) provide a grant to one eligible entity to study the effectiveness of such programs.
Authorizes appropriations.
Title VIII: Youth Violence in Schools and Communities - Prohibits any Federal law or regulation (except education and civil rights laws protecting individuals with disabilities) from restricting any LEA or school from developing and implementing disciplinary policies and action with respect to criminal or violent acts of students occurring on school premises.
Prohibits any Federal law or regulation from restricting any LEA or school from requesting and sharing information with any State agency, LEA, or school regarding a conviction or juvenile adjudication, within five years of the request date, or a pending prosecution of a student for a violent or weapons offense.
Encourages States, in cooperation with LEAs, schools, and parent groups, to enforce disciplinary policies with respect to parents of children who display criminal or violent behavior toward teachers, students, other persons, or school property.
Title IX: Educational Research and Improvement - Educational Research and Improvement Act of 1994 - Part A: Office of Educational Research and Improvement - Amends the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) to repeal certain provisions for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) under GEPA (and to reauthorize and revise OERI under this Act).
(Sec. 912) Sets forth provisions for OERI administration of authorized educational research and improvement activities.
Provides that OERI, administered by the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement (the Assistant Secretary), shall include: (1) the Advisory Board of Educational Research (the Board); (2) the Directorates for Educational Research; (3) the regional educational laboratories; (4) the Office of Educational Dissemination; (5) the National Education Library; (6) the Education Resources Information Clearinghouses; (7) the National Center for Education Statistics, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress; and (8) such other entities as the Assistant Secretary deems appropriate.
Requires open competition and peer review for all awards of grants or contracts by OERI.
Requires the Assistant Secretary to establish the following five national directorates for educational research on: (1) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; (2) Educational Achievement of Historically Underserved Populations; (3) Early Childhood Development and Education; (4) Elementary and Secondary Educational Governance, Finance, Policymaking, and Management; and (5) Adult Education and Lifelong Learning.
Limits the number of regional educational laboratories that the Assistant Secretary shall support (minimum ten, maximum 20). Sets planning and reporting requirements and a five-year minimum contract duration. Leaves existing regional educational laboratory contracts in effect.
Provides for a teacher research dissemination network program. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants or contracts to various entities. Requires an independent evaluation of such program to be submitted to the Congress.
Directs the Assistant Secretary to establish an Office of Educational Dissemination and Reform Assistance (which may include the Education Resources Information Clearinghouses, the regional educational laboratories, the National Clearinghouse for Science and Mathematics Resources, the National Diffusion Network, the National Education Library, and other appropriate programs).
Authorizes the National Diffusion Network to: (1) provide information through its State facilitators (directly and without program effectiveness panel approval) on model or demonstration projects funded by the Department of Education; and (2) disseminate other information which is available through the Office of Education Dissemination through the Network itself.
Establishes a National Library of Education at the Department of Education. Directs the Secretary of Education to appoint a librarian to head the Library.
Directs the Assistant Secretary to establish and support Education Resources Information Clearinghouses (ERICs) (including directly supporting dissemination services).
Authorizes appropriations for OERI programs.
Authorizes OERI, when more than one Federal agency uses funds to support a single OERI project, to act for all such agencies in administering such funds.
(Sec. 914) Amends the Department of Education Reorganization Act to limit the amount of Federal education program funds which may be used to pay non-Federal experts to review applications and proposals for such funds.
Part B: Educational Improvement Programs - Subpart 1: International Education Program - Directs the Secretary to carry out an International Education Program that shall provide for: (1) grants to study, evaluate, and analyze education systems in other nations (particularly Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan); and (2) an International Educational Exchange Program, which shall in part assist Central and Eastern European and former Soviet educators in adapting exemplary civic government and economic education programs developed in the United States.
(Sec. 921) Authorizes the Secretary to award up to three competitive contracts with independent nonprofit educational organizations, with specified types of experience, to carry out the Exchange Program.
Authorizes appropriations.
Subpart 2: Amendments to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act - Amends the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act to include postsecondary employment and training programs among those whose common occupational information needs must be met by the system developed and implemented by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee.
(Sec. 931) Requires each State board for higher education to develop a data collection system whose results can be integrated into the occupational information system.
Subpart 3: Elementary Science Equipment Program - Elementary Mathematics and Science Equipment Act - Authorizes the Secretary to allot funds to State educational agencies to award grants to local educational agencies to provide hands-on instruction equipment and materials to elementary schools to improve mathematics and science education.
(Sec. 950) Authorizes appropriations.
Subpart 4: Media Instruction - Directs the Secretary to enter into a contract with an independent nonprofit organization to establish a national multimedia television-based project, directed to homes, schools, and after-school programs, to motivate and improve the reading comprehension and writing coherence of elementary school-age children. Authorizes appropriations.
Subpart 5: Star Schools - Amends the Star Schools Assistance Act to revise the formula for the required reservation of funds for an independent evaluation of the Star Schools Assistance Program.
Subpart 6: Office of Comprehensive School Health Education - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to transfer the Office of Comprehensive School Health Education Act of 1965 to transfer the Office of Comprehensive School Health Education (OCSHE) from the Office of the Secretary (of Education) to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Requires OCSHE to act as a liaison office for coordination of its activities with related activities of the Department of Health and Human Services and to expand school health research grant programs.
Subpart 7: Minority-Focused Civics Education - Minority-Focused Civics Education Act of 1994 - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to eligible entities to develop and implement seminars in U.S. government and civics for elementary and secondary school teachers and other educators who work with minority and Native American students. Authorizes appropriations.
Part C: Definitions - Sets forth definitions for purposes of this Act.
Title X: Parents as Teachers - Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make grants to States (or directly to eligible entities) for parents as teachers programs.
(Sec. 1005) Sets forth program requirements, limiting services to families during the period from birth to the child's attaining age three.
(Sec. 1006) Prohibits requiring any person to participate in any program of parent education or developmental screening, or any program for developmentally delayed children.
(Sec. 1007) Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish one or more Parents As Teachers Centers for information dissemination and technical and training assistance for States and eligible entities with such programs; and (2) evaluate such programs within four years.
(Sec. 1011) Authorizes appropriations.
Title XI: Gun-Free Schools - Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to require local educational agencies (LEAs), as a condition of receiving ESEA assistance from the State, to have in effect a policy requiring expulsion from school for at least one year of any student who has brought a firearm to a school under LEA jurisdiction.
Title XII: Environmental Tobacco Smoke - Preventing Our Kids From Inhaling Deadly Smoke (PRO-KIDS) Act of 1994 - Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to issue guidelines for enforcing a nonsmoking policy at indoor facilities where children's services are provided. Requires such policy, at a minimum, to prohibit smoking in each portion of such a facility that is not ventilated separately.
(Sec. 1205) Directs the Administrator and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide technical assistance to persons who provide children's services and other persons who request it.
(Sec. 1206) Requires each person who provides children's services to establish and enforce a nonsmoking policy that meets or exceeds this title's requirements.
Authorizes persons who make a good-faith effort to enforce a nonsmoking policy that meets requirements to petition their funding Federal agency for a waiver from the general requirements.
Sets forth conditions for granting waivers, including that the person requesting the waiver will make a good-faith effort to enforce an alternative nonsmoking policy to protect children. Provides for special waivers for persons who provide children's services pursuant to certain collective bargaining agreements.
Prescribes civil penalties for violations of this title.
Exempts from this title's requirements registered persons providing children's services in a private residence to grandchildren, nieces, or nephews.
(Sec. 1207) Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress on information concerning compliance with this Act and an assessment of the legal status of smoking in public places.
(Sec. 1208) Declares that this title shall not preempt more restrictive State or local laws.
Became Public Law No: 103-227.
Introduced in Senate
Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Kennedy. Without written report.
Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Kennedy. Without written report.
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 106.
By Senator Kennedy from Committee on Labor and Human Resources filed written report. Report No. 103-85. Additional and minority views filed.
By Senator Kennedy from Committee on Labor and Human Resources filed written report. Report No. 103-85. Additional and minority views filed.
Measure laid before Senate by unanimous consent. (consideration: CR S605-631, S634-653)
Considered by Senate. (consideration: CR S699-731, S736-751, S756-758)
Considered by Senate. (consideration: CR S835-932, S936-945)
Considered by Senate. (consideration: CR S1014-1015)
SP 1391 previously agreed to was modified by Unanimous Consent.
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Considered by Senate.
Considered by Senate. (consideration: CR S1093-1101, S1116-1124, S1128)
SP 1404 previously agreed to was modified by Unanimous Consent.
Senate incorporated this measure in H.R. 1804 as an amendment.
Senate passed companion measure H.R. 1804 in lieu of this measure by Yea-Nay Vote. 71-25. Record Vote No: 34.
Roll Call #34 (Senate)Indefinitely postponed by Senate by Unanimous Consent.