Home AdvocacyPolicyWashington Notes2003 Jul

• IDEA Update
• Appropriations Update
• HEA Update
• E-Rate Update
• Children's Online Protection Act
• 21st Century Skills

IDEA Update
Senate Committee Marks Up IDEA Bill

Just prior to breaking for the July 4th recess, the Senate’s Health Education and Pensions Committee (HELP) marked-up and approved its version of legislation to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The bipartisan bill includes all of the technology language that HELP Committee members had inserted into the version they introduced in early June as well as language that clarifies ambiguous provisions and that establishes a bipartisan commission on universal design and accessible curricula. At this time, the bill is not likely to reach the Senate floor until September, with the conference likely to follow shortly thereafter. Congress will likely pass a final version of IDEA reauthorization later this fall.

The HELP Committee’s version of IDEA reauthorization includes a much greater focus on the integration of technology into the classroom to improve access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities than does its House approved counterpart. The Senate bill also does not incorporate any language on the issue of full funding by the federal government of its 40% share of state special education costs, preferring to leave this issue for debate on the Senate floor.

One of the more significant technology policy developments in the Senate bill comes in the form of a new finding that the education of special education students can be made more effective by supporting the development and use of technology devices and assistive technology devices, both of which maximize accessibility. While the Senate bill does not provide a definition for the principle of universal design, which holds that technology products and equipment should be designed to be accessible to people with disabilities from the outset instead of being retrofitted with assistive technology for accessibility, the bill authorizes IDEA formula grant state funds and competitive grant funds to be used for a variety of technology purposes, including: researching and developing universally designed and assistive technology devices; researching the feasibility of incorporating universal design concepts in the development of standards, assessments, curricula, and instructional methods; developing and administering alternate assessments in conjunction with universally designed and assistive technology principles; and training special education and regular education teachers and administrators to effectively utilize and integrate technology into curricula and instruction. Additionally, the bill requires that all deliverables from projects funded by most competitive grants in Part D of the Act be accessible to persons with disabilities.

The Senate bill also contains some groundbreaking language that aims to ensure that blind students and other students with print disabilities can gain access to print materials for the classroom. Specifically, it requires that, within two years of enactment of this legislation, states adopt the Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard, a standardized electronic format that allows blind students to obtain electronic copies of curricular print materials in order to convert them for their use. The bill also directs local school districts to enter into contracts with publishers to deliver versions of print instructional materials in the Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard as a condition of eligibility. New language approved at the full Committee’s mark-up defines the phrases “Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard,” “blind or other persons with print disabilities,” “specialized formats,” and “print instructional materials.” Additionally, the HELP Committee agreed in the mark-up to provisions that clarify that publishers and authorized entities providing educational materials in the Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard in accordance with IDEA are not in violation of the Copyright Act. The new language also requires the Secretary to promulgate the specifications for the Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard within 180 days following enactment of this legislation.

Lastly, the HELP Committee agreed at the mark-up to include a new section in the bill that creates a Commission on Universal Design and the Accessibility of Curriculum and Instructional Materials. The Commission would study the costs and benefits of implementing a universal design standard as a means of accessing curriculum and instructional materials.

Appropriations Update
Congress Cuts Spending for Educational Technology

The House passed the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill, HR 2660 by a 215-208 vote. The House bill will provide $138 billion for programs within its jurisdiction, with $55.4 billion for education programs. The bill increases education funding by $2.3 billion from FY03 levels, though funding levels are still well below the authorized levels. Title I, for instance, is authorized at $18.5 billion for FY04 but this bill only appropriates $12.35 billion. Additionally, while funding is increased from FY03 levels, the bulk of the funding increases is allocated to Title I, which would see an increase of $666 million over last year, and IDEA, which would receive an additional $1 billion. In terms of education technology funding, the House bill level funds the Education Technology Block Grant at $695 million (the funding level for FY03 was $700.5 but was subject to an across the board cut) and eliminates the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology, Star Schools, and the Community Technology Centers programs. The House elimination of funding for PT3 is particularly surprising given that the full House approved PT3’s reauthorization for another 4 years just one day before its appropriations vote.

On the Senate side, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations, S. 1356, by a 25-4 vote late last month. The Senate education funding level for S. 1356 was $54.6 billion, a $1.5 billion increase but $800 million less than the House allocation. Like the House passed version, the Senate’s FY04 spending bill level funds the Education Technology Block Grant and eliminates funding for PT3. However, the Senate bill does preserve, albeit at reduced levels, the Star Schools program, which received $20.5 million and the Community Technology Centers program, which received $20 million. As with the House bill, the Senate bill increases Title I by $666 million and IDEA by $1 billion, thus entailing cuts in various education programs.

Senate floor action on S.1356, which could occur before the August recess, is expected to be lengthy and contentious. Education funding supporters will likely offer amendments during debate to increase overall funding for education and fund eliminated programs.

Here are current funding numbers for key education programs:

HEA Update
House Passes HEA Bill Targeted to Teacher Training

This month, the House passed 404-7 the Ready to Teach Act, HR 2211, which reauthorizes Title II, Part A of the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants and the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The bill reauthorizes the three major grant programs that comprise Title II of HEA, namely the State, Partnership and Recruitment grant programs. The State grants program provides competitive grants to states to implement reforms on teacher preparation programs. The Partnership grants program provides competitive grants to partnerships that include a high quality teacher preparation program at an institution of higher education, a school of arts and sciences, a high-need LEA, and a public or private educational organization, for a variety of uses. The bill also reauthorizes the PT3 program with no changes for an additional 4 years.

The bill contains some important new technology language. First, it inserts language into Title II that mandates that technology training for teachers be an allowable use within the State and Partnership grants. Second, it requires states to submit an annual report describing how the state will increase, among other things, the number of teachers prepared effectively to integrate technology into curricula and instruction, and the number who use technology to collect, manage, and analyze student academic achievement data to improve teaching, learning, and decision making. Third, it includes language sponsored by Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA) and approved at the mark-up that would allow Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants to be used to train teachers to use supplemental multilingual computer software to teach students with limited English skills.

The House will continue working on reauthorizing each of HEA’s remaining three titles over the course of this session. The Senate, however, is unlikely to begin working on HEA reauthorization until next year because of its continuing work on IDEA reauthorization.

E-Rate Update
E-Rate Report Unveiled

At a press conference held on June 8, 2003 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library in Washington, DC, the Education and Library Networks Coalition, a group of education and library associations (including ISTE) formed to protect preserve the E-Rate program, and Verizon Communications released a report entitled “E-Rate: A Vision of Opportunity and Innovation” http://www.edlinc.org/pdf/ErateReport070803.pdf.

Prepared by Leslie Harris & Associates, the report profiles 39 schools and libraries that have received E-Rate discounts on telecommunications services, Internet access and internal connections over the course of the programs’ first five years. Some of the stories featured include:

• The Kuspuk and Lower Kuskokwim School Districts in rural Alaska, where the E-Rate program’s delivery of Internet access has helped students and teachers overcome their geographic isolation and supplied students with distance learning opportunities necessary to improve their academic achievement.
• The Oceanside Public Library in California, where children and adults are learning, via the library’s E-Rate supported Internet access, the technology skills necessary to compete in the 21st Century’s job market.
• The Rochester School for the Deaf in New York, where the Internet has proved a powerful tool in helping deaf children gain the same access to materials as their hearing peers.
• The Houston Independent School District in Texas, where the E-Rate program has allowed teachers and administrators to leverage academic and administrative technology to improve student learning and facilitate district business.
• The Roane County School District in West Virginia, where school administrators believe that the online resources made available through E-Rate have contributed substantially to student state test score gains.

Based on the stories included in the report as well as the hundreds of schools and libraries surveyed in preparation for drafting the report, E-Rate: A Vision of Opportunity and Innovation makes five key findings:

1. E-Rate is an important tool for economic empowerment in underserved communities;
2. E-Rate is beginning to bring new learning opportunities to special education students;
3. E-Rate is transforming education in rural America;
4. E-Rate technology is helping schools improve student achievement and comply with the government mandates of No Child Left Behind; and
5. Schools and libraries are devoting significant resources and exercising great care in completing E-Rate applications.

FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy participated in the press conference launching the report, stating that she “could not agree more that [the E-Rate] has been a boon for students and library patrons throughout the United States. E-Rate has enabled millions of school children and library patrons in our cities and rural areas to gain access to advanced telecommunications services for the first time.” She also pledged to continue to support E-Rate and to work with her colleagues to ensure accountability and make the application process less burdensome. Commissioner Abernathy also indicated that, “The President has endorsed the role of E-Rate funding in improving education, and EdLiNC has shown that E-Rate-supported technology is vital to reaching the goals set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act.”

Waste, Fraud and Abuse Issues
In late June, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation marked-up and passed the FCC Reauthorization Act (S.1264), a bill which contains new language directing the FCC to review the implementation, utilization and Commission oversight of activities under both the E-Rate program and the National Education Technology Funding Corporation for fiscal years 2004-2007 in order to determine whether any fraud or abuse has occurred in connection with these programs. According to the bill’s language, the FCC must submit, within one year from the legislation’s enactment, a report containing its findings, conclusions and recommendations to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Although the bill does not authorize any new funds to carry out this review, the bill permits the Commission to allocate "such sums as may be necessary" from existing funds to audit and investigate program beneficiaries for compliance with the rules and regulations of these programs. Due to the attachment of other controversial provisions to this bill, it is not clear whether it will pass the Senate this year.

E-Rate Discount Disbursements
The end of June 2003 witnessed the completion of Year 5’s funding waves. On June 26, the program’s administrator announced that it had issued its thirtieth and final funding wave and that $2.21 billion in discounts had been disbursed for Year 5. Some funds remain in reserve for appeals. While Year 5 disbursements may have concluded, Year 6 disbursements are now fully underway. To date, $654 million in E-Rate discounts have been disbursed, with approximately $190 million routed to internal connections discounts to applicants eligible for 90% discount rates. The program’s administrator still has not announced which discount rate brackets will receive internal connections funding this year.

Children’s Online Protection Act
Children’s Online Protection Act Upheld by the Supreme Court

On June 23, 2003, The United States Supreme Court voted to uphold the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), rejecting a lower court decision that the law interfered with the first amendment rights of adults in public libraries. CIPA, passed by Congress in 2000, mandates that libraries and schools that receive E-rate discounts or federal education funding for computers with Internet access must install and enable Internet filtering software that blocks material deemed “harmful to minors.” CIPA permits adult users in libraries to request that filters be disabled for legitimate research purposes. Neither the law nor the FCC regulations that implemented it provide guidance as to the circumstances where disabling filters would be permissible. In its decision, the Court adopted a more liberal interpretation of the provisions for disabling filters, claiming that any adult could request to disable a content filter regardless of intent. (For the full decision see http://www.cdt.org/speech/cipa/030623decision.pdf)

The American Library Association and its supporters had sought to strike down the Children’s Internet Protection Act on the grounds that it was not the most effective way to protect children from harmful material and would interfere with the First Amendment rights of adults to access constitutionally protected content. The A.L.A also contended that a federally mandated filter was too blunt an instrument to fulfill the diverse needs of users. While the lawsuit only sought to strike down the filtering mandate in public libraries, the CIPA law, which also applies to schools that receive E-Rate and other technology funds, was strongly opposed in Congress by the education community, including ISTE, on the grounds that it provided a “one size fits all” solution to a problem that should be dealt with on the local level.

With the June 30th decision, public libraries that receive federal technology funds must now install and use filtering technology on all library computers. Schools have been required to do so since the law went into effect two years ago. The rejection by the Court of ALA’s arguments that CIPA infringes the free speech rights of adults seems to militate against schools launching any similar challenge to the law.

For libraries, the only silver lining in this ruling is that the Court accords librarians broad discretion under CIPA to disable filters for adults. Many observers believe that this will provide libraries significant leverage to pressure filtering software companies to develop filters that can be easily disabled and are customizable to meet library selection criteria and limit over blocking of valuable sites.

21st Century Skills
New Survey Indicates that Public Backs 21st Century Technology Skills Instruction

On June 26, 2003, the AOL Time Warner Foundation released a survey on 21st Century Literacy, conducted by pollsters Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates, and Alex Gage of Market Strategies, that demonstrated widespread popular support for teaching students 21st Century Literacy skills including technology, communications and critical thinking, and concern that such skills are not being adequately taught. Coming at a time when three important education technology programs, the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology, Star Schools and the Community Technology Centers programs, face funding reductions or outright elimination in FY04 appropriations bills, the survey shows that the public believes inadequate funding as well as inadequate teacher training are major reasons why key 21st Century literacy skills are not being taught. The survey, which asked 1200 adults what skills they thought teens need for the 21st Century and where and how they should acquire them, defined these skills as reading, writing and math, plus proficiency in the areas of technology, communications, critical thinking, adaptability, decision-making, and problem solving. Among those surveyed were parents, teachers and business executives, and eight focus groups were held.

Some of the survey’s key findings include:

• Majorities of over 85% view 21st Century literacy as "very important" or "one of the most important skills for young people, but there is concern that these skills are not being adequately taught. Although 69% of Americans generally believe that schools are preparing young people for life after graduation, only 19% think they are being prepared "very well".
• 70% of survey respondents favor a "basics plus" education as opposed to a "back to basics" approach for young people. Offering a basics plus education would involve challenging schools to integrate 21st Century skills into the curriculum, adding these skills to school curriculum standards, and offering them in all classes. Respondents also favored building the teaching of these skills into programs outside of normal school hours, particularly in high quality after-school and summer programs.
• Survey respondents, especially teachers, cite funding and lack of curriculum flexibility as the primary reasons these skills are not taught. Others, particularly business executives, add lack of teacher training to the list.

The full report is available at: http://www.aoltwfoundation.org/media/survey.ppt