[House Document 105-249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 105-249


 
   LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL ENTITLED ``CLASS-SIZE REDUCTION AND TEACHER 
                         QUALITY ACT OF 1998''

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

  A LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL ENTITLED ``CLASS-SIZE REDUCTION AND TEACHER 
    QUALITY ACT OF 1998'' WHICH WOULD HELP STATES AND LOCAL SCHOOL 
  DISTRICTS RECRUIT, TRAIN, AND HIRE 100,000 ADDITIONAL WELL-PREPARED 
 TEACHERS IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE AVERAGE CLASS SIZE TO 18 IN GRADES 1 
                THROUGH 3 IN OUR NATION'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS





    May 11, 1998.--Message and accompanying papers referred to the 
   Committee on Education and the Workforce and ordered to be printed


To the Congress of the United States:
    I am pleased to transmit today for your immediate 
consideration and enactment the ``Class-Size Reduction and 
Teacher Quality Act of 1998.'' This legislative proposal would 
help States and local school districts recruit, train, and hire 
100,000 additional well-prepared teachers in order to reduce 
the average class size to 18 in grades 1 through 3 in our 
Nation's public schools. It is an essential part of our overall 
effort to strengthen public schools throughout the Nation.
    As schools across the Nation struggle to accommodate a 
surge in enrollments, educators and parents have become 
increasingly concerned about the impact of class size on 
teaching and learning, particularly in the critically important 
early grades, where students learn reading and other basic 
skills. This concern is justified: rigorous research confirms 
what parents and teachers have long believed--that students in 
smaller classes, especially in the early grades, make greater 
educational gains and maintain those gains over time. These 
gains occur because teachers in small classes can provide 
students with more individualized attention, spend more time on 
instruction and less time on discipline, and cover more 
material effectively. Moreover, the benefits of smaller classes 
are greatest for poor, minority, and inner-city children, the 
children who often face the greatest challenges in meeting high 
educational standards.
    Smaller classes will have the greatest impact on student 
learning if the new teachers brought into the classroom are 
well qualified to teach reading and to take advantage of 
smaller learning environments. For this reason, my proposal 
emphasizes not just class-size reduction but also professional 
development for educators, and it will give school districts 
adequate time to recruit and train staff while phasing in 
smaller classes. Furthermore, all new teachers hired under the 
program would be required to pass a State teacher competency 
test and would also have to be certified to teach or be making 
satisfactory progress toward full certification.
    We can help all of our students learn to read independently 
and well by the third grade, get a solid foundation in basic 
skills, and reach high educational standards if we start them 
off with small classes and well-prepared teachers in the early 
grades.
    Under my proposal, the Department of Education would 
provide $20.8 billion in mandatory appropriations over a 10-
year period (beginning with $1.1 billion in fiscal year 1999) 
to States. The States would then distribute the funds to local 
school districts based on their relative class sizes in grades 
1 through 3, as well as on their ability and effort to finance 
class-size reductions with their own resources. The bill would 
provide States with considerable flexibility in distributing 
these funds, while ensuring that the most needy school 
districts receive a fair share.
    Moreover, because my proposal would actually appropriate 
the funds needed to carry out the program, States and local 
communities could count on these funds without the need for 
separate congressional appropriations each year. This proposal 
is fully paid for within my Fiscal Year 1999 Budget, and 
therefore would not reduce the budget surplus.
    School districts would use these funds to reduce class 
sizes in grades 1 through 3. Just as importantly, these funds 
would also be available for a variety of activities to ensure 
that students in the early grades receive sound and effective 
instruction, such as making sure that teachers know how to 
teach reading and other subjects effectively in small classes.
    This proposal includes strong accountability for results. 
Participating school districts would produce ``report cards'' 
documenting reductions in class sizes and the achievement of 
their students in reading, based on rigorous assessments. 
Schools whose students fail to make gains in reading would be 
required to undertake corrective actions. In addition, the 
Department of Education would undertake a comprehensive 
national evaluation of this program and its impact on reading 
achievement and teaching.
    I urge the Congress to take prompt and favorable action on 
this proposal. Its enactment would help school districts reduce 
class sizes in the early grades and improve instruction and 
achievement in reading, issues that are of major importance to 
parents and to the Nation.

                                                William J. Clinton.
    The White House, May 8, 1998.





                                
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