COMMEMORATION OF ESEA AND CHAPTER 1

WHEREAS, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was enacted on April 11, 1965, and authorized federal funds for educating disadvantaged, handicapped and other special populations of children and illiterate adults and for improving libraries, purchasing textbooks, strengthening state education agencies and expanding educational research, and this act launched 25 years of continuing federal effort directed toward assisting children with special needs; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 1 and other parts of the ESEA legislation have been widely heralded for making significant improvements in the reading, math and other educational skills of educationally disadvantaged students, and, in addition, Chapter 1 has provided many paraprofessional and school-related employees with employment opportunities that allowed them to further their educations and careers; and

WHEREAS, in the years since ESEA was originally enacted, Chapter 1 has been continually improved and expanded, and during the last, 100th, Congress, significant new provisions were added that established concentration grants, Even Start, schoolwide projects, innovative projects, and secondary basic skills and dropout prevention; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 1 is strongly supported by members of all political groupings within the U.S. Congress, and Chapter 1 enjoys unparalleled support by officials from all levels of government, representing business, organized labor and all aspects of the educational community; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 1 is the largest elementary secondary education program funded by the federal government, reaching a total of more than $5 billion in FY 1990, but Chapter 1 receives a level of fund­ing sufficient to serve only about 60 percent of the eligible, educationally disadvantaged children:

RESOLVED, that the AFT endorse House Joint Resolution 489, a resolution commemorating the 25th anniversary of the enactment of ESEA and the Chapter 1 program and that AFT urge all members of Congress to cosponsor and support the joint resolution; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to work for the full funding of the Chapter 1 program, looking forward to a day when all eligible participants will receive the services to which they are entitled.