Rebecca R. Skinner
Specialist in Education Policy
Erin D. Lomax
Analyst in Education Policy
The Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2004 (P.L. 108-199), which combined six appropriations bills—including the FY2004 District of Columbia Appropriations Act—authorized and appropriated funding for the Opportunity Scholarship program, a federally funded school voucher program, for the District of Columbia. It also provided funding for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for the improvement of public education and the State Education Office for public charter schools. The provision of federal funds for DCPS, public charter schools, and vouchers is commonly referred to as the “three-prong approach” to supporting elementary and secondary education in the District of Columbia.
More specifically, the Opportunity Scholarship program was enacted under the DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, which was included in P.L. 108-199. The Opportunity Scholarship program provides scholarships (also known as vouchers) to students in the District of Columbia to attend participating private elementary and secondary schools, including religiously affiliated private schools. Appropriations for the program were authorized through FY2008. While the program is no longer authorized, the 111th Congress provided appropriations for the program in FY2009 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-8) and in FY2010 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117).
P.L. 111-8 specified that the use of any funds in any act for Opportunity Scholarships after the 2009-2010 school year shall be available only upon reauthorization of the program and the adoption of legislation by the District of Columbia approving such reauthorization. P.L. 111-117 eliminated this restriction on funding and provided continued appropriations for the Opportunity Scholarship program, as well as school improvement funding for DCPS and public charter schools in the District of Columbia. It provided $42.2 million to DCPS, $20 million for public charter schools, and $13.2 million for Opportunity Scholarships. The latter, however, could be used to provide private school vouchers only to students who received scholarships in the 2009- 2010 school year.
The 112th Congress has introduced two bills that would reauthorize the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act of 2011 (S. 206) and the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (H.R. 471). H.R. 471 was ordered reported (H.Rept. 112-36) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2011. On March 30, 2010, H.R. 471 was considered by the House. It passed without amendment by a vote of 225 to 195. S. 206 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. No further legislative action has occurred with respect to S. 206.
Date of Report: April 1, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R40574
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Andorra Bruno
Specialist in Immigration Policy
Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform have urged the President and Congress to pursue reform legislation. While prospects for comprehensive reform—especially for proposals including large-scale legalization of unauthorized aliens—may have dimmed since the November 2010 elections, some supporters are advocating passage of more limited legislation to address the status of unauthorized alien students. Such legislation is commonly referred to as the “DREAM Act.”
Unauthorized aliens in the United States are able to receive free public education through high school. They may experience difficulty obtaining higher education, however, for several reasons. Among these reasons is a provision enacted in 1996 that prohibits states from granting unauthorized aliens certain postsecondary educational benefits on the basis of state residence, unless equal benefits are made available to all U.S. citizens. This prohibition is commonly understood to apply to the granting of “in-state” residency status for tuition purposes. Unauthorized alien students also are not eligible for federal student financial aid. More broadly, as unauthorized aliens, they are not legally allowed to work and are subject to being removed from the country.
Multiple DREAM Act bills have been introduced in recent Congresses to address the unauthorized student population. Most have proposed a two-prong approach of repealing the 1996 provision and enabling some unauthorized alien students to become U.S. legal permanent residents (LPRs) through an immigration procedure known as cancellation of removal. While there are other options for dealing with this population, this report deals exclusively with the DREAM Act approach in light of the considerable congressional interest in it.
In the 111th Congress, the House approved DREAM Act language as part of an unrelated bill, the Removal Clarification Act of 2010 (H.R. 5281). However, the Senate failed, on a 55-41 vote, to invoke cloture on a motion to agree to the House-passed DREAM Act amendment and the bill died at the end of the Congress. The House-approved language was the same as that in the standalone Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 (H.R. 6497) and differed in key respects from earlier versions of the DREAM Act.
It is unclear whether the 112th Congress will take up DREAM Act legislation.
Date of Report: March 22, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: RL33863
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Rebecca R. Skinner
Specialist in Education Policy
Erin D. Lomax
Analyst in Education Policy
The 112th Congress is considering two bills that would reauthorize the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (DC OSP): the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act of 2011 (S. 206) and the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (H.R. 471). H.R. 471 was ordered reported (H.Rept. 112-36) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2011. S. 206 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
While both H.R. 471 and S. 206 would provide for the continuation of the DC OSP, making relatively minor adjustments to the program design, both bills would make substantial changes to the program evaluation. In this report, both bills are compared with current law provisions to identify proposed changes to the DC OSP. Then particular attention is devoted to changes both bills would make to the program evaluation requirements, including student selection and student assessment requirements, that could have substantial implications for the conduct and design of the evaluation.
Date of Report: March 29, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R41724
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Karen E. Lynch
Analyst in Social Policy
Head Start is a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965. The program seeks to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services. Head Start is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Federal Head Start funds are provided directly to local grantees rather than through states. Programs are locally designed and are administered by a network of roughly 1,600 public and private nonprofit and for-profit agencies. Most children served in Head Start programs are three- and four-year olds, but in 1994 Head Start was expanded to include an Early Head Start program, which serves children from birth to three years of age. Except as noted, the term Head Start in this report typically refers to both of these programs.
The FY2012 President’s Budget, released on February 14, 2011, requests $8.1 billion for Head Start for FY2012, an increase of roughly $866 million over the program’s FY2010 funding level of $7.2 billion. The Budget indicates that this would be more than sufficient to sustain program expansions (e.g., enrollment levels) that occurred under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, P.L. 111-5), which appropriated $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start in FY2009. HHS awarded ARRA funds over two years and most recently estimated that over 61,000 enrollment slots (including more than 48,000 in Early Head Start) were created by the ARRA. This represents about 6% of total FY2010 funded enrollment, when combined with the roughly 904,000 slots that were funded by the FY2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Meanwhile, Head Start funding for FY2011 has not yet been finalized. Congress has passed a series of continuing resolutions to provide federal funding for FY2011, the most recent of which, P.L. 112-6, is scheduled to expire on April 8, 2011. Each of the enacted continuing resolutions for FY2011 has maintained funding for Head Start at the FY2010 rate of $7.2 billion. This is roughly $990 million below the amount requested by the Obama Administration in the FY2011 President’s Budget ($8.2 billion), but it is the same level of funding the program received under the FY2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 111-117). By contrast, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, H.R. 1, passed by the House on February 19, 2011, would reduce FY2011 Head Start funding to $6.1 billion. The Senate voted to reject H.R. 1 on March 9, 2011. That same day, the Senate voted to reject Senate Amendment 149 to H.R. 1 (in the nature of a substitute), which would have increased Head Start funding to nearly $7.6 billion in FY2011.
The Head Start Act was most recently reauthorized with the signing of the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-134) on December 12, 2007. This law authorized the program through the end of FY2012 (September 30, 2012), meaning that Head Start will be due for reauthorization during the 112th Congress. The 2007 reauthorization law included provisions to increase the authorized funding levels for the program; revise the allocation formula; limit grantee designation periods to five years (at which point the grant may possibly be re-competed); expand eligibility to allow grantees to fill up to 35% of their slots with children from families with income between 100% and 130% of the poverty line (in certain circumstances); increase the qualifications and training requirements for Head Start staff; delineate the roles and responsibilities of a grantee’s governing body and policy council; and terminate the National Reporting System. The law also contained a variety of provisions aimed at promoting coordination among Head Start grantees and other state and local early childhood programs.
Date of Report: March 22, 2011
Number of Pages: 58
Order Number: RL30952
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Rebecca R. Skinner
Specialist in Education Policy
Erin D. Lomax
Analyst in Education Policy
The Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2004 (P.L. 108-199), which combined six appropriations bills—including the FY2004 District of Columbia Appropriations Act—authorized and appropriated funding for the Opportunity Scholarship program, a federally funded school voucher program, for the District of Columbia. It also provided funding for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for the improvement of public education and the State Education Office for public charter schools. The provision of federal funds for DCPS, public charter schools, and vouchers is commonly referred to as the “three-prong approach” to supporting elementary and secondary education in the District of Columbia.
More specifically, the Opportunity Scholarship program was enacted under the DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, which was included in P.L. 108-199. The Opportunity Scholarship program provides scholarships (also known as vouchers) to students in the District of Columbia to attend participating private elementary and secondary schools, including religiously affiliated private schools. Appropriations for the program were authorized through FY2008. While the program is no longer authorized, the 111th Congress provided appropriations for the program in FY2009 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-8) and in FY2010 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117).
P.L. 111-8 specified that the use of any funds in any act for Opportunity Scholarships after the 2009-2010 school year shall be available only upon reauthorization of the program and the adoption of legislation by the District of Columbia approving such reauthorization. P.L. 111-117 eliminated this restriction on funding and provided continued appropriations for the Opportunity Scholarship program, as well as school improvement funding for DCPS and public charter schools in the District of Columbia. It provided $42.2 million to DCPS, $20 million for public charter schools, and $13.2 million for Opportunity Scholarships. The latter, however, could be used to provide private school vouchers only to students who received scholarships in the 2009- 2010 school year.
The 112th Congress has introduced two bills that would reauthorize the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act of 2011 (S. 206) and the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (H.R. 471). H.R. 471 was ordered reported (H.Rept. 112-36) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2011. S. 206 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. No further legislative action has occurred with respect to S. 206.
Date of Report: March 25, 2011
Number of Pages: 22
Order Number: R40574
Price: $29.95
Follow us on TWITTER at http://www.twitter.com/alertsPHP or #CRSreports
Document available via e-mail as a pdf file or in paper form.
To order, e-mail Penny Hill Press or call us at 301-253-0881. Provide a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover card number, expiration date, and name on the card. Indicate whether you want e-mail or postal delivery. Phone orders are preferred and receive priority processing.
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