[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 988 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 988

  To provide mentoring programs for beginning teachers, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 6, 1999

  Mr. DeWine introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide mentoring programs for beginning teachers, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Teacher Mentoring 
Act of 1999''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The most important educational tool in any classroom is 
        a qualified, highly trained teacher.
            (2) The American teaching force is aging. The average 
        school teacher was 43 years old in academic year 1993-1994, an 
        increase of 3 years over the average age of school teachers in 
        academic year 1987-1998. Nearly a quarter of American teachers 
        are over 50 years old and nearing retirement.
            (3) On average public school teachers have slightly more 
        than 15 years teaching experience, and over a third of the 
        public school teachers have 20 or more years of teaching 
        experience.
            (4) The experience of America's veteran teachers should be 
        utilized to help introduce beginning teachers to the profession 
        and to their new school.
            (5) Retention of beginning teachers is a growing problem, 
        with approximately 25 percent of beginning teachers leaving the 
        teaching profession within their first 3 years in the 
        classroom.
    (c) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to increase teacher 
retention and improve the support and performance of teachers by 
encouraging and assisting States to develop and operate mentoring 
programs for beginning teachers.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    The terms used in this Act have the meanings given the terms in 
section 14101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary is authorized to award grants to 
State educational agencies to enable the State educational agencies to 
carry out mentoring programs under which public elementary school or 
secondary school teachers with more than 3 years teaching experience 
serve as mentor teachers to public elementary school or secondary 
school teachers with less than 3 years teaching experience.
    (b) Amount.--Each State educational agency having an application 
approved under subsection (d) for a fiscal year shall receive a grant 
in an amount that bears the same relation to the amount appropriated 
under subsection (f) for the fiscal year as the number of elementary 
school and secondary school students in the State for the fiscal year 
bears to the number of such students in all States for the fiscal year.
    (c) Reallocation.--The amount of a State educational agency's grant 
that will not be used by the State educational agency for a fiscal year 
shall be reallotted to the other State educational agency in the same 
manner as grants are awarded under subsection (b).
    (d) Application.--Each State educational agency that desires a 
grant under this section shall submit an application to the Secretary 
at such time, in such manner and accompanied by such information as the 
Secretary may require. Each such application shall--
            (1) describe the activities and services for which 
        assistance is sought;
            (2) contain an assurance that funds provided under this Act 
        will be used to supplement and not supplant State or local 
        public funds available for teacher mentoring programs; and
            (3) contain an assurance that the State educational agency 
        consulted with local educational agencies, school 
        superintendents, school boards, parents, and institutions of 
        higher education in the design and implementation of the 
        teacher mentoring program to be assisted.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this Act $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2000 and 2001.
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