President Bush's 2005 budget continues his commitment to expanding education options for parents by including an estimated $50 million for a Choice Incentive Fund to ensure America's parents have more choices for their children.

"The President is committed to empowering parents and students," U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said. "This additional funding is an important step forward—because it will help to give parents more information, more options, and more control to help secure the best possible education for their children. This action builds upon the No Child Left Behind Act and other efforts to make certain every child in this country receives a quality education—and we mean every child, regardless of race, special needs, income, or geography. All children in America deserve the chance to learn and thrive."

The Choice Incentive Fund would provide competitive awards to states, school districts and community-based nonprofit organizations with a proven record of securing educational opportunities for children. A major objective would be to help school districts address their capacity problems by providing low-income parents with expanded opportunities for transferring their children to high-performing public, private or charter schools.

No Child Left Behind is the landmark education reform law that is designed to change the culture of America's schools by ensuring that all children can read and do math at grade level, closing the achievement gap, offering more flexibility to state and local schools, giving parents more options about their child's education and teaching students based on what works. During the past two years, the Department of Education has worked aggressively with states to implement the law.

The law's provisions empower parents in several ways, including allowing students who attend schools in need of improvement to transfer to another public school that better meets their needs, or get after-school help and tutoring. The law also provides support for other parent options, including funds for public charter schools and outreach to parents about their rights and responsibilities under No Child Left Behind.

Under No Child Left Behind's strong accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency. In addition, they must produce annual state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress. Schools that do not make progress must provide supplemental services, such as free tutoring or after-school assistance.

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