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CANCER
AMENDMENT NO. 1621 TO AMENDMENT NO. 1542
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I have an amendment at the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the pending amendments are set aside.
The clerk will report the amendment.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. ENSIGN], for himself, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Gregg, proposes an amendment numbered 1621 to amendment No. 1542.
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To provide funding for statewide, longitudinal data systems under section 208 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002)
At the end of title III, insert the following:
SEC. 306. There are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry out section 208 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, $80,000,000. All amounts in this Act for management and administration at the Department of Education are reduced on a pro rata basis by an amount required to offset the $80,000,000 appropriation made by this section.
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I will take a very short time on this amendment. I am proposing this amendment for myself, Senator Murray, and Senator Gregg. This amendment is to address a problem we hear about back home on the No Child Left Behind Act. When you go home and talk to educators, they talk about not having adequate money to get the technology to transfer the data to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act for the local school districts. It is the No. 1 complaint we have heard from all of the school districts back home.
This amendment appropriates $80 million to basically fund that shortfall, and it takes the money out of administrative costs in the Department of Education. We think it is a very reasonable amendment. We hope our colleagues will support the amendment. Hearing from educators across the country, this will address one of the most pressing concerns they have in complying with the No Child Left Behind Act.
I just spoke to the new teachers in Clark County. They had to break it down into 2 days, with 700 one day and 700 the next for new teacher orientation. During that time, there were a lot of administrators around, and this was by far the biggest question they hadmaking sure they had adequate funds to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act. We think this amendment goes a long way toward complying with the No Child Left Behind Act.
I will yield to my friend from New Hampshire to make some remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire is recognized.
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I rise in support of this amendment. It is paid for, which is a critical element of any amendment. More important than that, it does fund the data-tracking capabilities of the States. That is part of the No Child Left Behind initiative.
Last year, we passed the legislation, basically creating this opportunity for States to set up these databases. Unfortunately, we never funded it. So this would allow us to fund that new piece of legislation. I think it was a separate freestanding piece of legislation.
In any event, it funds the effort of the States to set up the data tracking within the States that is necessary for them to determine how they are doing in obtaining their achievement goals under No Child Left Behind. It is reasonable that this money be appropriated, and I am hopeful that it will be accepted. If it cannot be accepted, I hope we can do it by the offsets presented in this amendment.
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, if no one else seeks recognition, I just add a couple of comments about the amendment. It has the support of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The reason, as I mentioned before, is because no matter how small or large the school district is, they are all facing the same problems this amendment attempts to correct.
They just do not have the infrastructure that is necessary to capture, analyze, and disseminate the data required by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Several States have not even done the planning to implement this because they don't have the resources. This amendment is going to give those resources necessary to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act.