I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 83
To amend part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 to allow States, in accordance with State law, to let Federal
funds for the education of disadvantaged children follow low-income chil-
dren to the public school, charter school, accredited private school, or
supplemental educational service program they attend, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. B
IGGSof Arizona introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 to allow States, in accordance
with State law, to let Federal funds for the education
of disadvantaged children follow low-income children to
the public school, charter school, accredited private
school, or supplemental educational service program they
attend, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ending Common Core 2
and Expanding School Choice Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY GRANTS TO ELIGI-4
BLE CHILDREN. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part A of title I of the Elemen-6
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7
6311 et seq.) is amended to read as follows: 8
‘‘PART A—STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY GRANTS 9
TO ELIGIBLE CHILDREN 10
‘‘SEC. 1111. ALLOCATIONS TO STATES. 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For each fiscal year, the Sec-12
retary shall allocate the amount appropriated to carry out 13
this part among State education agencies based on the 14
number of eligible children residing in each State. 15
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBLECHILD.—In this section, the term ‘eli-16
gible child’ means a child aged 5 to 17, inclusive, from 17
a family with an income below the poverty level on the 18
basis of the most recent satisfactory data published by the 19
Department of Commerce. 20
‘‘(c) C
RITERIA OFPOVERTY.—In determining the 21
families with incomes below the poverty level for the pur-22
poses of this section, a State educational agency shall use 23
the criteria of poverty used by the Census Bureau in com-24
piling the most recent decennial census, as the criteria 25
have been updated by increases in the Consumer Price 26
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•HR 83 IH
Index for All Urban Consumers, published by the Bureau 1
of Labor Statistics. 2
‘‘SEC. 1112. FUNDS FOLLOWING ELIGIBLE CHILDREN. 3
‘‘(a) C
ALCULATION OF PERPUPILAMOUNT.—For 4
each fiscal year, the State educational agency shall cal-5
culate the per pupil amount by dividing the amount made 6
available to the agency under section 1111 by the number 7
of eligible children (as defined in section 1111(b)) residing 8
in the State. 9
‘‘(b) U
SE OFFUNDS.—Each State educational agen-10
cy shall use each per pupil amount calculated under sub-11
section (a) for qualified elementary and secondary edu-12
cation expenses and in a manner directed by State law. 13
‘‘(c) F
UNDSDISTRIBUTED TOPARENTS.—In a case 14
in which State law directs a State educational agency to 15
distribute all or a portion of a per pupil amount to a par-16
ent of an eligible child, the agency also shall determine, 17
consistent with State law, how the agency will verify that 18
funds are being used in accordance with this section and 19
whether to require the parent to establish an educational 20
savings account or other dedicated account to maintain 21
such funds. 22
‘‘(d) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘quali-23
fied elementary and secondary education expenses’, when 24
used with respect to a child, means any of the following: 25
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‘‘(1) Expenses within the budget of the local 1
educational agency having jurisdiction over the geo-2
graphic area in which the child resides. 3
‘‘(2) Expenses within the budget of the public 4
or charter school the child may attend without pay-5
ing tuition or fees. 6
‘‘(3) Tuition and fees required to be paid in 7
order for the child to attend a public or charter 8
school in the State in which the child resides. 9
‘‘(4) Tuition and fees required to be paid in 10
order for the child to attend an accredited or other-11
wise State-approved private school in the State in 12
which the child resides. 13
‘‘(5) Fees required to be paid for the child to 14
participate in a State-approved supplemental edu-15
cational services program. 16
‘‘SEC. 1113. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 17
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—No officer or employee of the 18
Federal Government shall, through grants, contracts, or 19
other cooperative agreements, mandate, direct, or control 20
a State, local educational agency, or school’s specific in-21
structional content, academic standards and assessments, 22
curricula, or program of instruction (including any re-23
quirement, direction, or mandate to adopt the Common 24
Core State Standards developed under the Common Core 25
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•HR 83 IH
State Standards Initiative, any other academic standards 1
common to a significant number of States, or any assess-2
ment, instructional content, or curriculum aligned to such 3
standards), nor shall anything in this Act be construed 4
to authorize such officer or employee to do so. 5
‘‘(b) N
OREQUIREMENT TOIMPLEMENT ASSESS-6
MENTS, STANDARDS, ORACCOUNTABILITYSYSTEMS.—An 7
officer or employee of the Federal Government shall not 8
require a State educational agency, local educational agen-9
cy, school, or Indian Tribe to implement an annual assess-10
ment, academic standard, or accountability system, or 11
condition funds made available under this part upon such 12
implementation.’’. 13
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 14
(1) R
EPEAL OF STATE ASSESSMENT GRANTS .— 15
Part B of title I of the Elementary and Secondary 16
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1201 et seq.) is 17
repealed. 18
(2) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 19
Section 1002 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 6302) is 20
amended— 21
(A) by striking the subsection heading for 22
subsection (a) and inserting ‘‘S
TATEEDU-23
CATIONALAGENCYGRANTS FOR ELIGIBLE 24
C
HILDREN’’; and 25
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(B) by striking subsection (b). 1
Æ
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