Ms. Jamie Brandel of New York, on behalf of herself, submits the following bill to Education and the Workforce

A BILL
To provide to every public school within the United States with additional funding to be put toward computer and technological equipment


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SHORT TITLE- This section may be cited as the `Computer and Technological Advancement in Public Schools Act'.

SECTION 1. Inadequate funding for computers and other technology within public schools, particularly those in less fortunate neighborhoods

FINDINGS- Congress finds the following:

(1) Recently, at the recommendation of the Computers For Children of AMERICA organization, Congress has reviewed new legislation with the intent of increasing support of addition technology in schools, however, to date Congress has taken no significant action in this matter

(2)according to the Department of Education (ED), the structure of education finance in our country comes from state, local and private sources. In fact of the estimated $732 billion that is spent nationwide on education 90% of the money was from the three sources mentioned earlier. Which means that these sources are paying around $658.8 billion dollars a year and the federal government contributes the other 10% (www.ed.gov).

(3)When other additional sources are subtracted, the Department of Education is left with 6% of the total education spending. Which in turn is $55.8 billion dollars and 2.7% of the federal government's budget of $2 trillion. Despite this large amount of money spent on the American education system, many of the nations schools lack adequate facilities for the usage of computers by students, the employment of computers in classrooms, and training programs for teachers and students to learn how to operate them. The American government can afford more

(4) In the modern society that we live in, computers are essential for the highest level of education as well as a necessary skill to enter the serious job market. Access to computers inherently increases the capacity of a school to bolster its normal curriculum

SECTION 2. Increasing funding for public schools to get access to computers and other technological apparatus

(1) The Federal Government upon enacting this Bill into law, shall provide adequate funding for all public schools within the United States such that they all schools meet the following requirements
(a) All schools shall have will be herein required to maintain a ratio of 1:15 computers to students available for student use and/or classroom education at all times
(b) All schools will be required to submit financial records that support the necessity for government assistance IF this is required to meet that ratio

(2) In addition to government spending to bring computers to schools, the government will also allocate funds (based on necessity as described earlier) in order to open educational training programs for students and teachers
(a) All schools seeking government funding for these training programs will need to prove inability to properly fund these initiatives

(3) On top of need-based funding, national expenditures on all public schools, based on a function of students, will be increased in the form of a grant allocated to all the nations public schools, to be spent on technologically up-to-date facilities
(a) All schools will receive an equal proportion of money, to be decided by Congress annually, to be used solely for increasing technological facilities
(b) Additional grants will be available per requests, IF the school in question is deemed to be well below standards in the first place in this matter, in which case, additional money will be granted to them in order to even the facilities for schools up to a standard:
I. Standards will be set annually and regulated by the United States Department of Education and approved by the Committee on Education on the Workforce within Congress

SECTION 3.

(1) Upon the passing of this bill in Congress and the signing of it by the President, spending on these programs will begin immediately

(2) Every year, the provisions of the bill will be reviewed by the Committee on Education and the Workforce, in order to provide flexibility in the event of additional requirements in the future

(3) ALL standards will be provided by the Department of Education and reviewed by the Committee on Education and the Workforce

(4) Under this bill, let there be established a special team within the Department of Education whose purpose it is to review individual school cases for all matters pertaining to this Bill