ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 8, Number 66 July 6, 1999 In this issue: House Committee ESEA Reauthorization Markup Held In what was called "a day of harmony" on "major league legislation," the House Education and Workforce Committee on June 30 held the first of a series of markups to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. By a partisan vote of 27- 19, the committee approved H.R. 1995, the Teacher Empowerment Act. H.R. 1995, sponsored by Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon (R-CA), proposes to amend ESEA by authorizing $2 billion per year over five years for programs aimed at reducing class size and improving teacher quality by allowing states to administer grants to local school districts. Reps. Tim Roemer (D-IN) and Rush Holt (D-NJ) crossed party lines to join the majority. "H.R. 1995 is a good bill; it's not good enough," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), who taught school for 10 years, explained that H.R. 1995 lacked coverage for pupil service personnel -- including counselors, social workers, speech language therapists and personnel for the disabled. A seemingly "surprise" substitute bill was introduced by Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-CA) that would have kept funding to reduce class sizes separate from funding to improve continuing teacher improvement. The motion for the bill was denied by a vote of 21- 23. Although the final votes were highly partisan, consensus seemed to be reached during the hearing. Rep. Roemer, who offered a "troops to teachers" proposal, said he believed they were "sentences or paragraphs apart" from compromise. Rep. Matt Solomon (R-AZ) expressed the sentiments of many: "This issue is too important to politicize on either side because the product will make a difference in the lives of children." Throughout the hearing Chairman Bill Goodling (R-PA) repeated that on July 1, President Clinton would release the first wave of $1.2 billion to states to hire 30,000 new teachers this year. The new teacher legislation, the result of an agreement reached last fall in the omnibus spending bill (P.L. 105-227), requires "no accountability." "All that money going out tomorrow with no strings attached," Goodling said. Although it is estimated that more than two million qualified teachers will be needed because of retirements and replacements over the next decade, "simply hiring teachers doesn't help if they are not qualified," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who introduced the School Quality Counts Act (H.R. 1734) in May. "Certified is not qualified. This is our opportunity to say that qualified means qualified." Rep. Miller proposes making a teacher "qualified" if they have a bachelor's degree in the subject matter or pass a rigorous state exam in the subject matter they are to teach. "If you [states] want to accept the federal dollars, then all teachers must be qualified -- no exceptions." Numerous representatives gave examples of emergency certified teachers and uncertified teachers in their states or districts. Rep. Major Owen (D-NY) recalled an offer made to uncertified teachers to pay for their certification classes. The teachers refused the classes, Rep. Owen believed, because they knew they were needed and the incentives were not there for them to become certified. Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-PA) stressed the need for school construction to accompany any mandate for smaller class sizes. Chairman Goodling read excerpts from a report stating that schools have been forced to give up computer labs, parent centers and libraries to make room for additional classrooms. Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) cautioned against allowing local decision makers to use federal funds to proliferate administrative bureaucracy. He also asked how this bill would be paid for under the current budget caps. Rep. Solomon responded that money from other appropriations bills was being saved for education. Chairman Goodling added, "They'll find the money somehow." Chairman Goodling's strategy for passage of ESEA reauthorization was to divide up the subject areas among the full committee and several subcommittees. Not all of the bills have been introduced yet. He stressed that this hearing was "one step in the process," and that a lot of issues would "come to closure before it goes to the floor" of the House. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Mary Costabile, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.