Education

I am proud to be a member of the House Education and Labor Committee where I have the opportunity to advance new policies and legislation that will give our children the tools to compete in the 21st Century workforce. On the Committee, I have worked on reforming No Child Left Behind (NCLB), improving access to Head Start and other early educational programs, and making college more affordable, among other important measures.

Head Start:
Studies have found that children who attend Head Start enter kindergarten better prepared than children who do not. I am committed to providing children from low-income families with a solid foundation from the very beginning so they can excel in the future.

As a Member of the Committee, I played a lead role in drafting the bill to reauthorize and improve the Head Start program through 2012. Two of my amendments—which would improve access to Head Start for rural communities—were made a part of the final legislation. Specifically, my amendments would remove barriers to professional development, parental involvement, transportation, home visits, and health screenings in rural areas.

Pre-K:
On June 25, 2008, the House Education and Labor Committee approved the Providing Resources Early for Kids Act (PRE-K Act), H.R. 3289, which included two rural focused amendments I authored to offer grants to states to enhance or improve the quality of state-funded preschool programs.

More than 2.5 million three to five-year-olds live in rural America, and a recent study shows that half of these children have very limited access to high-quality preschool programs. Rural communities face significant obstacles in providing these programs, contributing to the deficit of pre-kindergarten opportunities in rural areas.

My first amendment would ensure that states work to remove these obstacles and provide information on their efforts to improve the quality of rural preschool programs and enroll additional children. My second amendment seeks to promote coordination between preschool providers and public schools.

Both measures have been endorsed by the American Association of School Administrators, the Association of Educational Service Agencies, the National Rural Education Association, the Organizations Concerned about Rural Education, and the National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition.

Soon, I plan to introduce the Rural Early Education Access Act which would establish a federal grant program for states seeking to increase the availability of preschool programs in rural communities.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB):
The goals of NCLB—signed into law in 2002 with strong bipartisan support— are good ones. We should strive to have high quality teachers and strong accountability standards.

However, in practice, the law has suffered major flaws. I support substantial reform of No Child Left Behind.

First—we need to fully fund the program. The Bush Administration and Republican Congress underfunded NCLB by tens of billions of dollars. By refusing to provide the resources necessary for success, we are setting up our schools for failure.

Aside from increasing funding, I support:

• Improving the way IDEA and ELL students are tested
• Using growth models and other indicators of student progress in addition to test scores.
• Addressing some of the certification barriers faced by rural areas so we can recruit and retain high quality teachers.
• Increasing funding for teacher mentoring and after school programs.
• Supporting positive behavior interventions and other methods that are successful in addressing drop out rates and student academic achievement.
• Establishing a task force to address the challenges faced by children of military families.
• Providing assistance for school construction projects so our children have safe and secure facilities suitable for learning.

Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act:
Reducing disciplinary problems is one of the greatest challenges facing our schools. Not only does classroom disorder present a serious obstacle toward raising student achievement, but educators also cite high rates of problem behaviors as a primary reason why teachers are leaving the profession.

Schools typically respond to disciplinary problems with “get tough” approaches, such as expulsions, suspensions, or by removing troublemakers from the classroom. However, research shows that punitive approaches to discipline are ineffective and disproportionately harm students of color and students with disabilities.

One effective approach being implemented all over the country is school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). PBIS is a research-based system designed to create and maintain safe effective learning environments by using early-intervention and proactive teaching techniques to encourage positive behavior among students.

Illinois proudly serves as a model for statewide PBIS with over 800 schools in 200 school districts currently implementing the system. In fact, I first learned of PBIS when I visited Monmouth-Roseville Junior High in 2007. Impressed by the success of the students, I was inspired to bring PBIS to schools across the country.

As such, I introduced the Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act (H.R. 3407), which provides schools with the flexibility and technical assistance needed to implement, expand, and sustain the use of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports system.

Midwest Schools Disaster Recovery Act (HR 6733):
The Midwest was hit hard by record flooding during the summer of 2008. Flood damage to schools alone is expected to reach nearly $100 million.

As a result, some schools are closed for the 2008-09 school year, and those that are able to open their doors will face many hurdles on the road to recovery, such as an influx of flood-displaced students, and financial challenges from a decline in property values.

To address the short- and long-term needs of our schools, I introduced the Midwest Schools Disaster Recovery Act, H.R. 6733. Similar to legislation passed following Hurricane Katrina, H.R. 6733 provides flood-impacted schools in the Midwest with disaster aid and flexibility to meet NCLB requirements.

Specifically, the bill:

• Authorizes funds to restart school operations. These monies can be used on transportation assistance, to replace damaged textbooks and computers, rent temporary classroom sites, hire additional staff for counseling services, cleanup school buildings, and other services and activities.
• Authorizes funds for schools to accommodate any displaced students they enroll.
• Prohibits the loss of students due to displacement to count against schools when federal funding is calculated for the next academic year.
• Waives the federal requirement that schools maintain their share of financial responsibility in providing education services.
• Ensures the needs of homeless students displaced by flooding are met through the Education for Homeless Youth program.

At the bottom of the page see the letter I wrote to Appropriations Committee Chairman Obey urging consideration of H.R. 6733.

Making College More Affordable:
As one of my first actions in Congress, I voted to make college more affordable and accessible by cutting the interest rate on subsidized student loans in half over the next five years—–from 6.8% to 3.4% (H.R. 5). According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 128,765 Illinois students with subsidized student loans will benefit from this bill. Once fully phased in, it would save the average four-year college student (who begins school in 2011) $4510 over the life of his or her loan.

I also helped craft the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which became law on September 27, 2007 and is the single largest investment in higher education since the landmark 1944 GI bill. The bill made need-based student loans more easily accessible and provided for additional mandatory funding for the Pell Grant scholarship by at least $500 over the next five years, benefiting nearly 230,000 students in Illinois, including over 22,000 newly eligible beneficiaries. Illinois students and their families will receive more than $784 million over five years in the form of student loans and Pell Grants as a result of this law.

Student Loans:
As a member of the Education and Labor Committee, I am committed to ensuring our students have access to loans and other financial assistance regardless of our nation’s economic situation. The Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 was signed into law on May 7, 2008. Turmoil in the U.S. credit markets has made it difficult for some lenders in the federally guaranteed student loan program to secure the capital needed to finance college loans, leading some lenders to scale back their lending activity. While no student or college has reported any problems accessing federal student aid, it is our responsibility to make sure contingency plans are in place that would provide students and families with continued, uninterrupted access to federal loans, regardless of what’s happening in the credit markets. The legislation:

• Reduces borrowers’ reliance on costlier private college loans and encourages responsible borrowing;
• Gives parent borrowers more time to begin paying off their federal PLUS college loans;
• Helps struggling families pay for college; and
• Provides the U.S. Secretary of Education additional tools to safeguard access to student loans.

I also voted for the Student Loan Sunshine Act, which requires full disclosure of special arrangements between lenders and institutions of higher education and bans lenders from offering financial aid officers gifts of more than $10 in value. With the overall cost of a college education continuing to skyrocket, students and their families deserve the best deal possible when borrowing for college, not to fall victim to predatory lending.

Higher Education Act (HEA):
On August 14, 2008, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act became law. I played a large role in crafting this legislation to overhaul our nation's higher education laws, advance key reforms that address the soaring price of college and remove other obstacles that make it harder for qualified students to go to school.

Specifically, I secured four key provisions in the final law to help students and families in rural communities:

1. Recruitment of highly qualified teachers for rural schools: My provisions provide incentives to Colleges of Education to teach the skills new teachers need to work in rural schools and encourage students to complete their required student teaching hours there;
2. Leadership Development: My amendment prepares individuals to be principals, superintendents and other administrators in rural schools through Teacher Quality Partnership Grants. School leadership is a key to student achievement and rural communities experience a huge deficit in this area.
3. Dislocated Workers and Financial Aid: I secured measures to inform dislocated workers of their eligibility to qualify for more financial aid through “Professional Judgment,” a process financial aid officers can employ to more accurately assess financial need, ensuring these students receive the most assistance possible;
4. CURE Act: I successfully inserted in the final bill the College and University Rural Education (CURE) Act, legislation I co-authored to award grants to rural-serving colleges and universities in partnership with local educational agencies, regional employers, or other organizations with a demonstrated expertise in rural education. These grants would be used to increase the enrollment of rural high school graduates in institutions of higher education, move those students into good-paying jobs, and expand training for professions of need in rural America.