[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NORTON FILES BILL TO AUTHORIZE ANNUAL FUNDING FOR TRANSFORMATION 
                      SCHOOLS AND CHARTER SCHOOLS

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record:
       Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced 
     the Model Alternative Publicly Accountable Schools Act of 
     2003 to allow the District to use its unique experience in 
     establishing an unusual number and variety of successful 
     publicly accountable alternatives to its traditional public 
     schools in an effort to encourage other school districts to 
     do the same and to provide additional funding to allow the 
     city to continue these efforts, which are now threatened by 
     cuts and a shortage of funds. Norton said that nationally, 
     the Congress has been unwilling to fund private school 
     vouchers and has had very limited success in getting school 
     districts to establish public alternatives such as charter 
     schools. (For example, Virginia has eight charters and 
     Maryland has one, while the District has 42). Locally, she 
     said that H.R. 2556--the D.C. Parental Choice Incentive Act 
     of 2003--would authorize private school vouchers but without 
     her bill there would be no bill authorizing funds for the 
     city's transformation and charter schools that would treat 
     these parents and children equally, as even voucher advocates 
     say is necessary. In addition, Norton said, in a year when 
     both D.C. and the federal government have cut school funding, 
     her bill providing funds for publicly accountable schools 
     would free up scarce D.C. funds for use in traditional public 
     schools. The D.C. Public Schools last week cut 422 positions 
     to help meet a $40.4 million shortfall, including $6.5 
     million in funds for textbooks. However, the voucher bill 
     will result in a minimum loss of $25,114,000 if 2,000 
     students exit the public schools altogether next year because 
     D.C. and federal law require that schools be funded on a per 
     pupil basis.
       The Norton bill would authorize a total of $15 million for 
     the first of five years of funding. In the FY 04 budget, $12 
     million would fund and expand transformation schools based on 
     a congressional finding that the District has significantly 
     improved the performance of its poorest and lowest performing 
     children in transformation schools. She said that the 
     improvements in test scores and parental involvement were 
     directly related to extra services provided only to 
     transformation school children and parents. These 
     improvements for they city's low-income children cannot be 
     expected to continue if these services are withdrawn, as cuts 
     now are forcing, she said.
       A total of $3 million in FY '04 would fund public charter 
     schools in recognition of heightened demand, long waiting 
     lists, and unavailability of funds for facilities to meet a 
     demand the city has shown it cannot meet. Norton said that a 
     particularly large number of schools had applied for charter 
     school status for the coming school year and that the $3 
     million was important to expand the direct loan fund to 
     assure that start-up charter schools would have the necessary 
     head start to lease facilities in D.C.'s costly rental 
     market. In the remaining four years of the Norton bill, 
     allocation of funds between charter and transformation 
     schools would be done by the City Council after hearings 
     based on the demonstrated needs and gaps in both.
       The Congresswoman said that sporadic and ad hoc funding for 
     charter schools from Congress demonstrate the necessity for a 
     specific authorization. Last year, the House did not fund 
     charter schools at all, but working with the Senate, Norton 
     got $17 million for charters to help ease facilities 
     pressures. ``This was done without slogans about funding 
     multiple sectors,'' she said, ``and funds may come on an 
     episodic basis again. However, no one should mistake any 
     funds we may get without an authorization this year or in the 
     future, for the authorized amount for vouchers that is 
     designed to guarantee an annual appropriation. Only a 
     comparable authorization can do for charter schools and 
     transformation schools what H.R. 2556 does in authorizing a 
     specific amount for private school vouchers.''
       Norton said that the voucher intervention by federal 
     authorities ``has been a distraction from the expressed 
     desires and needs of the majority of the city's parents and 
     children and has done a disservice to the District's 
     leadership role in carrying out two congressional 
     statutes''--the charter school provision of the Improving 
     America's Schools Act of 1994, which Funded charter schools 
     nationally, and Section 1115 of the No Child Left Behind Act, 
     which encourages schools such as D.C.'s transformation 
     schools. Norton is also one of the authors of the District of 
     Columbia School Reform Act of 1995. written on a home rule 
     basis with D.C. officials and residents.
       Norton said that her bill is also necessary because the 
     President's visit last week shows that his administration 
     intends no extra funds for charter schools, because he spoke 
     only of funds that are available to all charter schools 
     nationally, despite demand here that far outstrips the 
     available funds and despite D.C.'s record of establishing 
     charter schools in particularly significant numbers, as 
     Congress intended. She said without explicit authorization, 
     charter and transformation schools would be left to the mercy 
     of appropriation committees, which are free to fund whatever 
     programs they desire while vouchers would be authorized for 
     finds on an annual basis.

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