Congressional Education Leader Introduces Major Reform Bill for Equity in Resources

WASHINGTON, April 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the leading Congressional advocate for equity in education, today introduced significant educational reform legislation to assure that poor schools are no longer shortchanged in the distribution of resources.

The ESEA Fiscal Fairness Act "represents a long-overdue correction" in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that is up for reauthorization in the 111th Congress, Fattah said.

The Act advances Congressman Fattah's record for far-reaching educational reform, especially as it impacts urban school districts and underserved students. He is the architect of the successful 11-year-old GEAR UP program for college readiness among low-income students – Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs – as well as other initiatives impacting young people from kindergarten to postgraduate. 

The Fiscal Fairness Act will require school districts to equalize the money spent among all schools, including teachers' salaries, within its jurisdiction – with the imperative to raise the resources allotted to schools in the poorest neighborhoods to meet those in well-off schools.

"The Fiscal Fairness Act is a giant step toward achieving the promise of Brown v. the Board of Education, which ended segregation in schools in 1954 but has left the unfulfilled need for equal resources and opportunity in all our schools," Congressman Fattah said. "Without a fair and equitable distribution of resources, the promise of truly equal educational opportunity remains a dream, not a reality."

Fattah said he expects his proposal will jumpstart the national dialogue this year on achieving educational equity as the Congress turns its attention to reauthorizing ESEA and to President Obama's ambitious educational reform proposals.

The Fattah bill is already drawing praise from education reform advocates and stakeholders.

Kati Haycock, President of The Education Trust, stated: "This is about fundamental fairness. Budgeting practices in too many districts have, for too long, shortchanged high poverty schools-- the schools facing the steepest challenges.

"Rep. Fattah's bill would put an end to that.  It's about the federal government saying that it's just not OK to cheat poor kids and the schools they attend. What could be simpler, saner or more urgent?"

Cynthia Brown with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, declared. "Ensuring funding equality within districts is essential to improving the quality of education for our neediest students. The Fiscal Fairness Act fixes the comparability requirement by requiring actual expenditures, including salary differentials, in Title I and non-Title I schools to be relatively equal."

Brown said that salary differentials have been "extremely problematic and have led to an unfair distribution of funds. We are grateful to Representative Fattah for his leadership and for recognizing the importance of closing the comparability loophole."

In supporting the bill, John H. Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation, emphasized "the importance of improving comparability in moving towards a more equitable educational system where all children have the right to an opportunity to learn."

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was designed to provide supplemental funding to districts and schools to cover some of the additional costs of educating low-income students. Inherent in the law was the recognition that, because of the realities of poverty, these students would need resources in addition to those available to their peers.

More than any other provision in that law, this requirement, known as comparability, seeks to ensure that federal funds are used to support existing, equitable State and local efforts, rather than to compensate for State and district inequities.

However, because of loopholes in the statute, Department of Education regulations and a lack of meaningful enforcement, the "comparability" provision has never lived up to its intended purpose. The ESEA Fiscal Fairness Act seeks to correct this historic oversight and to restore the original intent of the ESEA. 

The Fattah bill addresses problems with the current statute and its implementation. It also updates the law to accommodate current school improvement strategies and the use of Title I funds.    

SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah