1.This Act may be cited as the
Incentives to Educate American
Children (I Teach) Act of 2005
.
2.
(a)Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)An estimated 2,000,000 new teachers will be
needed over the next decade.
(2)Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
States must recruit qualified teachers by 2006, yet schools in rural areas and
public schools with high poverty have trouble attracting and retaining
teachers.
(3)Fourteen percent of America’s school
children attend rural schools, and according to the Rural School and Community
Trust 2000 report, Why Rural Matters
, rural education is crucial
or very important to overall education performance in 25 States, so recruitment
and retention of teachers is essential.
(4)A 2000 study by the Education Trust reports
that high poverty schools are twice as likely not to have teachers certified in
their fields than other schools, which highlights that high poverty schools
will need special help to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001.
(5)The National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards was founded in 1987 as a follow up to the landmark 1983
report, A Nation at Risk
, by the Carnegie Task Force on
Teaching. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an
independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization the mission of which is to
establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should
know and be able to do.
(6)Over 16,000 teachers from all 50 States and
the District of Columbia have completed certification by the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards, which certification is a rigorous assessment
process for teachers.
(7)Recent data from the Accomplished Teaching
Validation Study have demonstrated that teachers who are certified by the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards significantly outperform
their peers who are not National Board certified on 11 of 13 key measures of
teaching expertise.
(8)Teacher salaries have remained stagnant
over the past decade, according to a study by the National Education
Association, and 2/3 of the States do not meet the
national average of $40,582 for teacher salaries.
(b)The purposes of this Act are as
follows:
(1)To encourage teachers, through a refundable
tax credit, to work in public elementary and secondary schools located in rural
areas or schools with high poverty.
(2)To provide an additional tax credit to
teachers who achieve certification from the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards in order to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in
public elementary and secondary schools.
3.Refundable tax credit
for individuals teaching in elementary and secondary schools located in high
poverty or rural areas and certified teachers
(a)Subpart C of part IV
of subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to
refundable credits) is amended by redesignating section 36 as section 37 and by
inserting after section 35 the following new section:
36.Tax credit for
individuals teaching in elementary and secondary schools located in high
poverty or rural areas and certified teachers
(a)In the case of an
eligible teacher, there shall be allowed as a credit against the tax imposed by
this subtitle for the taxable year an amount equal to the applicable amount for
the eligible academic year ending during such taxable year.
(b)For purposes of this
section—
(1)Teachers in
schools in rural areas or schools with high poverty
(A)In the case of an
eligible teacher who performs services in a public kindergarten or a public
elementary or secondary school described in subparagraph (B) during the
eligible academic year, the applicable amount is $1,000.
(B)A public
kindergarten or a public elementary or secondary school is described in this
subparagraph if—
(i)at least 75 percent of the students
attending such kindergarten or school receive free or reduced-cost lunches
under the school lunch program established under the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act, or
(ii)such kindergarten or school has a School
Locale Code of 7 or 8, as determined by the Secretary of Education.
(2)In the case of an
eligible teacher who is certified by the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards for the eligible academic year, the applicable amount is
$1,000.
(3)Certified
teachers in schools in rural areas or schools with high povertyIn the case of an eligible teacher
described in paragraphs (1) and (2), the applicable amount is $2,000.
(c)For purposes of this
section, the term eligible teacher means, for any eligible
academic year, an individual who is a kindergarten through grade 12 classroom
teacher or instructor in a public kindergarten or a public elementary or
secondary school on a full-time basis for such eligible academic year.
(d)For purposes of
this section—
(1)Elementary and
secondary schoolsThe terms
elementary school and secondary school have the
respective meanings given such terms by section 9101 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965.
(2)The term
eligible academic year means any academic year ending in a taxable
year beginning after December 31,
2005.
.
(b)
(1)Paragraph (2) of section 1324(b) of title
31, United States Code, is amended by inserting before the period , or
from section 36 of such Code
.
(2)The table of sections for subpart C of part
IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended
by striking the item relating to section 36 and inserting the following new
items:
Sec. 36. Tax credit for
individuals teaching in elementary and secondary schools located in high
poverty or rural areas and certified teachers.
Sec. 37. Overpayments of
tax.
.
(c)The amendments made by
this section shall apply to academic years ending in taxable years beginning
after December 31, 2005.